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Abdul El-Sayed tried to shut down Bret Baier Friday as the Fox News host attempted to ask the Michigan Senate hopeful a question about the Muslim Brotherhood.
The polarizing Democrat immediately got defensive and repeatedly interrupted Baier during an interview on “Special Report” as the newsman pressed him on a 2012 letter addressed to the leader of the extremist group in Egypt that was signed by El-Sayed.
“Bret, Bret … no, no, no … let me just stop there,” El-Sayed interjected, cutting off Baier before he could finish the question.
“You are asking this question to raise the question about whether or not I have dual loyalty,” the former public health official assumed.
Baier shot back: “I’m not, this is specific.”
“My loyalty will be to the Constitution of the United States, and as as every senator who’s ever served, I will swear an oath to that Constitution,” El-Sayed said, interrupting the host again.
Undeterred, Baier attempted to ask the question once more, but El-Sayed, again, started talking over the journalist.
“I’m not interested in anything you’re going to pull out from a 2012 statement, a letter, you’re going to pull that out of context, you’re going to ask questions about my allegiance,” he said.
“Don’t be Rogers’ campaign. Be a journalist,” El-Sayed snapped.
“So as a journalist,” he told Baier condescendingly, “if you’re asking the question about my allegiance to the Constitution: I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I am interested in serving the United States. I’m interested in swearing an oath to the Constitution that every senator has sworn oath to.”
The 2012 letter, signed by El-Sayed and more than 30 others, urged Mohamed Morsi, the then-newly crowned president of Egypt and a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, to “purge” the media and police, the Washington Free Beacon first reported last month.
The letter was published on Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate and was followed by a cruel crackdown on journalists in Egypt by Morsi’s government.
In a separate interview with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, the former congressman argued that El-Sayed didn’t “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood in his contentious conversation with Baier.
“He’s been dancing around this issue for a while,” Rogers said.
“When you support an organization and say you’re going to purge the press and purge the police, not to say it, encourage them to do it … he has adopted the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood,” the Republican argued.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — but not the US.
The group is controversial in part because of its radical offshoots such as Hamas.
El-Sayed’s parents were Egyptian immigrants and the Democrat’s half-sister touted their family’s ties to the Brotherhood in resurfaced tweets from 2012.
El-Sayed has accused his opponent of making his Muslim faith a campaign issue, which Rogers has denied.
“It is not how he prays; it’s how he thinks,” Rogers told Baier.