Republican figures label Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a national-security risk
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Donald Trump and several Republican officials have accused Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of posing a threat to U.S. national security, citing alleged ties to extremist groups.
Donald Trump told a rally audience that Abdul El-Sayed would be the only senator required to pass through a metal detector before entering the Senate, describing the candidate as a national-security threat. Former Congressman and Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and former Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said El-Sayed’s “radical ideology is a threat to our national security.”
Senator Ted Cruz warned that placing El-Sayed on the Senate Intelligence Committee could endanger American service members and covert intelligence assets, suggesting the candidate might share classified information with “Muslim Brotherhood terrorists.”
Senator Tim Sheehy, a member of the Armed Services Committee, expressed “serious national-security questions” about El-Sayed’s alleged ties to extremist groups, noting the risks associated with any senator’s access to sensitive classified material.
"Abdul El-Sayed’s radical ideology is a threat to our national security," Mike Rogers said. "He would have access to the very highest level of classified materials. And I believe, if that were to happen, there would be an unacceptably high risk that American servicemen and women, their lives would be endangered, and that our covert intelligence assets, their lives would be in danger because [there’s] every reason to believe Abdul El-Sayed would share that classified information with Muslim Brotherhood terrorists," Ted Cruz said. "Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to this group raise serious national security questions. As senators, we have access to some of our nation’s most sensitive, classified information, and I have serious concerns about the security risks posed by anyone associated with such a group serving in the Senate," Tim Sheehy said.
The statements focus on alleged security risks rather than El-Sayed’s policy positions, framing the election contest as a matter of national-security concern.