On this day in 2016, during his third presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump refused to say he would accept the result of the election if he lost. He has never accepted the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
Good morning… Martin here, delighted to bring you the news you need to start your week. This week’s Monday musical selection is… the color that seems set to spread on the map once the midterms are done, just 15 days from now.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we’ll take a look at an absurd gotcha attempt against Abdul El-Sayed that the Michigan Democrat not only turned to his own advantage, exposing his questioner’s argument before the questioner was revealed to be a GOP plant, but which pointed to a similar question that could be leveled at Donald Trump himself.
Then we’ll consider former President Barack Obama’s strong statement in support of Rep. Ilhan Omar and against her persecution by the Trump administration – and contrast it to one very senior Democrat’s conspicuous silence on such an assault on a member of his own party. There’s Iran news too, and a lot on Trump’s appalling treachery towards Ukraine and toadying to Russia. Let’s get to it.
‘I Have No Ties’
The basis of Republican attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for being “linked” to the Muslim Brotherhood is that his half-sister said his mother, Fatten Elkomy, was active with the group in Egypt in the 1970s. El-Sayed was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, in 1984. When he was three, his parents divorced. He was raised by his father, Mohammed El-Sayed, and stepmother, Jacqueline Johnson. In 2025, President Donald Trump designated some chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.
Ludicrous though the situation may be, El-Sayed has been forced to repeatedly deny ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, including in an interview with NBC last week.
“I have no ties. We have no ties,” he told host Tom Llamas. “I have never had these conversations with my mother. I wasn’t raised by my mother ... You’re using hearsay evidence from a tweet. It’s just not serious.”
It isn’t, but of course such attacks persist. On Saturday, at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, a young man who identified himself as Tommy stood to ask El-Sayed: “Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”
El-Sayed said, “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” then asked: “Why are you asking the question?”
The ensuing exchange, in which El-Sayed outlined the U.S. Constitution’s protections of all faiths and none, and charged his Christian questioner with suggesting El-Sayed, a Muslim, has “dual loyalties,” ended with El-Sayed drawing applause and Tommy leaving the room.
As the exchange went viral – helped, of course, by El-Sayed’s campaign, recognizing a clear win when it saw one – facts about Tommy came rushing out.