At a rally in Port Huron Sunday, President Donald Trump invoked Flight 93 as he urged Michigan voters to deny Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed a seat in the Senate.
C-SPAN’s recording shows Trump connecting efforts to keep El-Sayed out of the Senate with passengers’ resistance to hijackers aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. Trump cited Todd Beamer and said, “I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.” The Trump 47 Committee’s event notice listed a 3 p.m. ET start at McMorran Place Arena.
El-Sayed says he has no connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Associated Press described the Republican allegations as unsubstantiated. PolitiFact’s review of an Oct. 17 town hall records El-Sayed replying, “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” to a question about whether he would disavow the group. It rated false Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ claim that El-Sayed had not done so. The finding concerned his response to the disavowal question; it did not establish an affiliation.
Earlier in the campaign, El-Sayed sought conservative support in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, emphasizing health care and household costs, as EconoTimes reported in its coverage of his Upper Peninsula campaign. Michigan Public Radio’s Russ McNamara reported that about 60% of voters in the region backed Trump in 2024.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ decision to retire left the Senate seat open. The Associated Press reported Republicans view the contest as a pickup opportunity; the party has not won a Michigan Senate race in more than three decades, the AP said. The outlet also reported El-Sayed could become the first Muslim senator if elected.
The Independent also reported Trump called for metal-detector screening for El-Sayed at the Capitol if elected, a demand EconoTimes covered in an earlier report on Trump’s screening demand.
The Michigan Department of State’s roster names El-Sayed and Rogers for a six-year U.S. Senate term in the Nov. 3 general election.
