A man who questioned Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a town hall has been identified as a former Republican staffer, according to an independent report.
During the weekend event in Caro, Michigan, the man, who identified himself as "Tommy" pressed El-Sayed on whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed responded, "Sure. Yeah, absolutely," and the question prompted an extended back-and-forth during which El-Sayed accused the man of questioning his loyalty to the U.S. Constitution due to his religion.
A five-minute video of the confrontation posted to social media by El-Sayed has since gone viral on social media, with more than 12 million views on X as of Monday morning, drawing a divided response.
Report Links Town Hall Questioner to Republican Politics
The Handbasket identified the man who posed the question to El-Sayed as Thomas Teepell, and reported that he lives in Detroit, citing social media profiles. It added that he held the role of Operations Director for Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley until February, according to Legistorm records.
Following this, Teepell worked as Political Director for the Kansas gubernatorial campaign of Philip Sarnecki, a Republican businessman, The Handbasket reported.
The article added that Teepell is the son of Timmy Teepell, a Republican strategist who it noted had worked for congressman and then Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal from 2004 to 2011, as well as Jindal’s presidential primary campaign in 2015.
The Handbasket also reported ties between Timmy Teepell and pro-Trump Christian singer Sean Feucht, who attracted attention in 2020 with a tour protesting the COVID-19 lockdowns. It pointed to a 2024 Religion News Service article, which featured a picture that appeared to show Feucht praying over the Republican strategist and Tommy.
An X account reviewed by Newsweek and bearing the name Thomas Teepell featured a banner image showing him alongside Hawley, though Newsweek was unable to verify that the account belonged to him. The account had also shared several posts from Sarnecki, Hawley and Feucht.
Newsweek has reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment via email. Newsweek also contacted Hawley’s and Sarnecki's representatives for confirmation of details in The Handbasket’s report. Additionally, Newsweek reached out to a social media account bearing Thomas Teepell’s name and image.
El-Sayed Rejects Claims of Muslim Brotherhood Ties
El-Sayed, who is competing against Republican Mike Rogers in the November 3 election for the seat being vacated by Senator Gary Peters, has faced questions over allegations about possible connections between his family and the Muslim Brotherhood. Claims of connections between El-Sayed and the organization followed the resurfacing of posts written in 2012 by El-Sayed's half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, including one in which she reportedly wrote: "Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect."
El-Sayed has denied that he or his family has ties to the organization.
In November, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing officials to evaluate whether certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Islamist movement, or some of its chapters, has been designated a terrorist organization by several governments.
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Speaking to CNN about the town hall interaction, El-Sayed said: "They send people like this guy, who apparently was a former staffer for Josh Hawley from Missouri to town halls in the middle of the state of Michigan.
"When you have no new ideas, and your only approach is to backstop a president who called you and asked you to run in the first place, you're going to try and find anything you can to distract from the issues," El-Sayed said.
Rogers, in a weekend social media post, said: "Abdul has a long history of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which even calls to purge the press and police. The media should start taking a good look into that."
CBS Correspondent Apologizes Over Deleted Post
Meanwhile, CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford deleted a post criticizing El-Sayed while praising Teepell and apologized, writing that it "was a violation of CBS News standards."
"Tommy, thank you. I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s nanosecond ‘yeah absolutely’ response," she wrote in the now-deleted post, according to the Daily Mail. "His subsequent uninterrupted three-minute diatribe proving your exact point is the kind of spectacular self own most ppl only dream about triggering. Congrats."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and John Fitzpatrick