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<\/a><\/p>\nA video of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is displayed behind U.S. President Donald Trump as he delivers remarks during an election rally in Port Huron, Michigan <\/p>\n
(Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images\/AFP)<\/p>\n
The Republican president has been attacking El-Sayed\u2019s faith<\/a> throughout the campaign and claiming his past statements and background show a sympathy for extremists. El-Sayed, a former public health official, has repeatedly said he is loyal to the U.S. and disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement with branches that the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations.Trump\u2019s return to Michigan reflects the importance of the race. Republicans see an opening to flip a Senate seat <\/a>as they try to hold onto the majority in the chamber. El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman backed by Trump, in the November 3 race to succeed retiring Democrat Gary Peters.<\/p>\n The race has taken on significance beyond Michigan, with Republicans casting El-Sayed as a symbol of a Democratic Party moving further to the left. Progressives, meanwhile, see his candidacy as a test of whether their agenda can win in a battleground state ahead of the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n Trump invokes 9\/11 when talking about El-Sayed<\/p>\n Trump on Sunday invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol,\u201d Trump said, referring to Todd Beamer, a Michigan native who died aboard the flight. Trump then invited Beamer\u2019s parents onto the stage.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s visit to Port Huron follows former Democratic President Barack Obama\u2019s appearances Saturday in Michigan and Ohio for his party\u2019s candidates. It is Trump\u2019s latest stop on a packed campaign schedule to bolster Republicans on the midterm ballot as the GOP is weighed down by voters\u2019 frustration with the economy and the war with Iran.<\/p>\n Port Huron, about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) northeast of Detroit, sits across the St. Clair River from Canada, where Trump\u2019s tariffs have strained trade relations between the longtime allies.<\/p>\n Unlike Trump\u2019s earlier trips to Republican-controlled states where his party is on defense, the GOP has not won a Senate race in Michigan for more than three decades. Rogers unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2024, losing to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin.<\/p>\n El-Sayed has taunted Trump, encouraging him to come to Michigan in the belief that a visit would backfire on Rogers. \u201cDonald, if you\u2019re watching, don\u2019t wuss out, man,\u201d El-Sayed said. The progressive, who won a divisive primary in August, has said the country needs to \u201cturn the page on Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign has been one of the most contentious this year<\/p>\n El-Sayed said that questioning was \u201cshameful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Speaking before Trump\u2019s appearance Sunday, Rogers repeated his allegations linking El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood. \u201cThe Muslim Brotherhood celebrated exactly one victory in the United States in the primary this year,\u201d Rogers said on stage. \u201cAbdul El-Sayed\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I\u2019m really sorry,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was not my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n El-Sayed has struggled to unite Democrats following a contentious primary against Rep. Haley Stevens. Appearing Sunday on CNN, Stevens declined to explicitly say whether she was \u201cstill fully behind\u201d El-Sayed, instead saying she was \u201con the team\u201d and naming other Michigan Democratic candidates but not the party\u2019s Senate nominee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump escalated his attacks against Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan on Sunday with rhetoric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-657161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}