Mike Rogers on Trump calling Abdul El-Sayed a terrorist: ‘I've never called him a terrorist’

[0:00] Let me ask you about one of the big issues that you've raised in this campaign, which is Abdul [0:05] al-Sayed, your challenger's background. President Trump posted overnight calling Abdul al-Sayed [0:12] a Muslim Brotherhood jihadist who hates Jews and blacks and Americans. As you know, there's no [0:19] evidence to support any of those claims. Do you agree with the president, Congressman? Yes or no? [0:25] Boy, I don't understand the national press. They have to work and twist themselves in knots [0:33] not to understand Abdul's relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood. When you write [0:41] a letter in supporting of Morrissey in 2012 and 2013 saying you should purge the police and purge [0:50] the media, and by the way, he will not answer this question. Look at the New York Times who said he [0:55] just won't answer this question. There's a reason. He has getting money from groups that support the [1:00] Muslim Brotherhood, money from groups that support Hamas and Hezbollah. That's a thinking issue. I wore [1:07] the uniform of the United States, Kristen, so that people could vote any way that they want to in [1:12] this country. It's not how you pray. It's how you think. And that has a consequence. [1:18] Okay. Congressman, he has denied and denounced the Muslim Brotherhood and denied any ties to them. [1:25] No, he has not. He dismissed the question. Hold on. What you're talking about. No, he did not, Kristen. [1:29] He did in an interview with me. I don't know why you give this guy a pass. He has not. He won't answer the [1:34] New York Times. He won't answer a local newspaper. No, I just don't buy that. Let's talk about the 2012 [1:40] letter. You're giving him a pass on something he should be held accountable for. Okay, let's talk about that [1:43] 2012 letter. I want to give folks some context. I get it. I get it. Listen, I get you guys want to [1:49] defend this guy. No, listen. I think it's unbelievable that you would not hold him [1:53] accountable for his beliefs and what he thinks America ought to look like. Let me just give some [2:00] context to the 2012 letter that you're talking about. Egyptians were rising up against a brutal [2:04] dictatorship. Al-Sayed, as you said, he joined that letter, which supported the protesters against [2:10] Egypt's dictator, not the Muslim Brotherhood as a group. But this is what you said, Congressman, [2:15] in 2012. I want to put up what you said at the time. Oh, my gosh. Do I think there are moderate [2:21] Muslim Brotherhood individuals we are going to have to reach out to and talk to? Yes. But we are going [2:29] to have to watch it carefully. Do you acknowledge that at the time in 2012, you were willing to work [2:36] with some moderate members, as you said, of the Muslim Brotherhood? That is so much out of [2:41] I wish you would have done this for Abdul Al-Sayed. That would have been a great interview. But what [2:45] you're doing now is trying to twist this thing to defend your position for letting him lie to you. [2:50] I don't have a position. Congressman, respectfully, I don't have a position. [2:54] And here, let me tell you what that was about. I'm happy to talk to you about what that was about. [2:58] So what happened was we had relationships where Israel and Egypt had relationships in their [3:03] intelligence services that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to undo. And what that would have meant [3:09] is more violence in the region. So as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I said, we're going to [3:13] have to find a way to try to not sever that relationship, which they did, by the way. And so [3:20] listen, there are when you talk about the Muslim Brotherhood as an ideology, it's a political group. [3:26] Five Muslim countries have banned the Muslim Brotherhood because they're so extreme. [3:30] And Abdul Al-Sayed not only has family relations, which he lied about, he not only had his own [3:38] letter that he said supporting them, including purging the press. I don't know about you, [3:43] but you should probably be concerned about that. And secondly, you have this idea that the Muslim [3:50] Brotherhood, wait a minute, wait a minute, I got it. You're trying to defend Abdul, and I understand that. [3:54] The other part of that is the Muslim Brotherhood, only one candidate in the country did they support [4:01] a primary win. One, Abdul Al-Sayed. The money that he gets ought to be a factor in this. So you take [4:08] his way he thinks, the way he supported them. And by the way, the Muslim Brotherhood immediately [4:14] started making women as second class citizens. I think that's an issue. I mean, that's just not [4:20] consistent with American value. And so if you're going to elect somebody to go to the United States [4:25] Senate who wants to be on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we probably should know this. And as [4:30] a former FBI guy, I can tell you this, Kristen, when you lie about who you are, he said he was a [4:36] physician. He's not. When he said he's a dual citizen of Egypt, we don't think that he is. [4:41] When you say that you're an immigrant from North Africa, those are disqualifying for you because [4:47] you've lied about who you are. Congressman, I'm asking you about your words versus coming back [4:52] and pushing back. I asked Abdul Al-Sayed plenty of tough questions. And by the way, moderate Muslims [4:56] across Michigan have reached out to our campaign and are as concerned as our Chaldean friends, as our [5:03] Jewish American friends. Let me ask you about your words and the words of President Trump. President [5:09] Trump says your opponent is a violent terrorist, violent. Again, there's just no proof of that. [5:15] And he has denounced. He was asked directly if he denounces the Muslim Brotherhood. He has. Do you [5:20] agree with calling him a violent terrorist? That's not true. Hold on. Do you agree with calling him a [5:25] violent terrorist? You know what he did? He said, the guy said, are you going to answer the question? [5:28] Hold on. Will you disavow? And he said, yeah, absolutely. I'll answer the question. He never answers [5:33] the question. Is that up to your standard? No, I don't. I've never called him a terrorist. I've never [5:38] called him a terrorist. This election is about me versus Abdul. I mean, he's a Democrat Socialist [5:44] of America aligned candidate who has these pretty radical support groups that don't like America. [5:51] I think those are issues people ought to decide their election on. And by the way, we've lived [5:56] under what their policies are. And we've got higher prices and higher taxes here in Michigan [6:01] under the Democrat control. Congressman. [6:02] And what they're talking about doing is making that worse here.