Trump compares Muslim Senate candidate to 9/11 hijackers at Michigan rally
US President Donald Trump compared Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the September 11 hijackers during a campaign rally in Michigan on October 25, accusing him without evidence of ties to Islamist extremism ahead of a closely contested Senate election.
Speaking in Port Huron in support of Republican candidate Mike Rogers, Trump called El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, a "jihadist" and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Trump invoked the passengers who fought back against hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 during the September 11, 2001, attacks, comparing their actions to voting against El-Sayed.
"Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol," Trump said, referring to Michigan native Todd Beamer, one of the passengers who resisted the hijackers.
Trump also said that if El-Sayed won, "he would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go in the Senate."
According to Reuters, some members of the rally audience shouted "traitor" and "deport," although El-Sayed was born in Michigan.
El-Sayed responds
At a separate campaign event in Grand Rapids, El-Sayed accused Trump of hypocrisy over his repeated emphasis on the candidate's name.
"I get that the president of the United States takes personal offense to my first name," he said.
"He doesn't mind as much when it's a shared name from the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity, doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving him a $400 million private jet."
Jared Kushner's investment firm has received billions of dollars from a Saudi government entity, while Qatar gifted Trump a Boeing 747 aircraft.
El-Sayed has denied having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and described allegations questioning his loyalty to the United States as "shameful."
His Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has made similar allegations about the Muslim Brotherhood without providing evidence.
However, Rogers told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that he did not consider El-Sayed a violent terrorist.
"I've never called him a terrorist," Rogers said.
Closely watched Senate race
Michigan is among the most competitive Senate battlegrounds ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with Republicans seeking to retain control of the chamber.
Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democrats in Detroit on October 24, criticizing attempts to portray El-Sayed as less American than his political opponents.
Obama compared the attacks to false claims about his own birthplace during his political career.
El-Sayed, a physician and epidemiologist born in Michigan to a family of Egyptian immigrants, is running for an open Senate seat against Rogers, a former US representative.