Mike Rogers says he’s drawing ‘Democrat coalitions’ who ‘can’t vote’ for El-Sayed: Full interview

[0:02] Welcome back. And joining me now is the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, [0:07] former Congressman Mike Rogers. Congressman Rogers, welcome back to Meet the Press. [0:13] Thank you, Kristen. It's good to be here. [0:15] Thank you so much for being here on this very busy Sunday for you. I know that President Trump [0:20] is going to be out in Michigan campaigning with you a little bit later on today. Let me ask you, [0:25] Congressman, is a vote for you a vote for the Trump agenda? [0:33] I'm apologizing. I'm having some difficulty in my earpiece, but is a vote for you? I'm not sure. [0:39] I'll tell you what a vote for me is. It's a great day for the state of Michigan. We've lived under [0:44] all the policies that the Democrats have just talked about, even on your show, about bringing [0:49] down prices. For the last eight years, we've had Democrats control our state, both of the U.S. [0:54] Senate seats and Lansing, Michigan. We have the highest utility rates in the Midwest. We have [0:59] the highest auto insurance rates in the country. Our education has gone down all the way to 46th [1:08] in the country. Two-thirds of our fourth graders can't read in the fourth grade level. And if you [1:13] can't read in the fourth grade level, you have a 70 percent chance of going to prison or being on [1:17] welfare. So I present solutions for all of that. And if you're going to have the President of the [1:23] United States of one party for the next two years, why not send somebody back that can work with the [1:29] state, excuse me, work with the President to get some of these things fixed? And the things that we [1:34] disagree with on some of the Canadian tariffs, wrapping up the Iran war, better to have somebody [1:40] that can work to that conclusion than just go back to poke them in the eye and increase our costs [1:46] all across the state with their Green New Deal that they're pushing with Bernie Sanders and AOC and [1:51] others coming right here in the state. Okay. And I want to make sure you can hear me clearly as I'm [1:57] asking you these questions. Are you able to hear me clearly, Congressman? There we go. Great. There we [2:05] go. All right. Wonderful. Sorry. You raised the issue of tariffs. So let me ask you about that. You have [2:11] broken to some extent with President Trump on the issue of tariffs. You've called for an end to the trade [2:19] war with Canada. If you were elected, would you vote to repeal some of President Trump's tariffs? [2:26] Well, again, the best way to do this is walk in and say, can we work this out? And I'll give you a [2:33] great example how I've done that. I'm not even in office yet. I've been trying to get Canadian [2:38] trash from coming across our border and dumping in our landfills for over a decade. And I left Congress [2:46] in 2014. We still couldn't quite get it done. Called the administration and said, hey, we need [2:51] some help on these Canadian tariffs. But if you're going to tariff anything, tariff this trash that's [2:56] filling up our landfills from what the third largest landmass country in the world. And guess [3:00] what? They announced this week that they were going to tariff those trash trucks. That's what you get when [3:06] you send somebody back who can work with the president. You know, the automobile portion of these [3:12] Canadian tariffs worries me a little bit. And we're going to go back and work through those issues [3:17] to get some relief, to make sure that it's good for Michigan, not bad for Michigan. There are other [3:23] tariffs, Chris. And this is what I think people don't hear, is the fact that we have the Chevrolet [3:28] Silverado being built in Mexico. By next year, they've announced it's coming back to Michigan. Why? [3:34] Because of those tariffs that are based on getting reshoring of manufacturing back in the United States. [3:39] That's huge for us. It's a multi-billion dollar investment right here in Michigan. [3:44] The Detroit Diesel is adding a third shift. They haven't done that in a couple of decades [3:49] because of reshoring opportunities coming back. These small fabricators around the state [3:54] actually getting more work because companies want to operate here in manufacturing to try to avoid [4:01] what they've had as a free ride in the trade negotiations. So there's some good, [4:06] and there's some things we have to work on. Okay. Let me ask you about one of the big issues that [4:11] you've raised in this campaign, which is Abdul Al-Sayed, your challenger's background. [4:16] President Trump posted overnight calling Abdul Al-Sayed a Muslim Brotherhood jihadist who hates Jews [4:25] and blacks and Americans. As you know, there's no evidence to support any of those claims. Do you [4:31] agree with the president, congressman? Yes or no? Boy, you and the, I don't understand the national [4:38] press. They have to work and twist themselves in knots not to understand Abdul's relationship [4:46] with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood. When you write a letter, it's supporting of Morrissey in [4:53] 2012 and 2013 saying you should purge the police and purge the media. And by the way, [5:00] he will not answer this question. Look at the New York Times who said he just won't answer this [5:05] question. There's a reason. He has getting money from groups that support the Muslim Brotherhood, [5:11] money from groups that support Hamas and Hezbollah. That's a thinking issue. I wore the uniform of the [5:17] United States, Kristen, so that people could vote any way that they want to in this country. [5:22] It's not how you pray. It's how you think. And that has a consequence. [5:27] Okay. Congressman, he has denied and denounced the Muslim Brotherhood and denied any ties to them. [5:34] No, he has not. He dismissed the question. Hold on. What you're talking about. No, he did not, [5:38] Kristen. He did in an interview with me. In an interview with me, he said he had no ties to [5:43] the Muslim Brotherhood. He won't answer a local newspaper. No, I just don't buy that. Let's talk [5:48] about the 2012 letter. You're giving him a pass on something he should be held accountable for. [5:51] Okay. Let's talk about that 2012 letter. I want to give folks some context. [5:55] I get it. I get it. Listen, I get it. You guys want to defend this guy. [5:59] No. Listen. I think it's unbelievable that you would not hold him accountable for his beliefs. [6:03] We have held him accountable. We've asked him hard questions. [6:06] America ought to look like. Let me just give some context to the 2012 letter that you're talking [6:10] about. Egyptians were rising up against a brutal dictatorship. Al-Sayed, as you said, [6:15] he joined that letter, which supported the protesters against Egypt's dictator. Not the Muslim Brotherhood [6:22] as a group, but this is what you said, Congressman, in 2012. I want to put up what you said at the [6:27] time. Do I think there are moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals we are going to have to reach out to [6:34] and talk to? Yes. But we are going to have to watch it carefully. Do you acknowledge that at the time [6:42] in 2012, you were willing to work with some moderate members, as you said, of the Muslim Brotherhood? [6:49] That is so much out of control. I wish you would have done this for Abdul El-Sayed. That would have [6:53] been a great interview. But what you're doing now is trying to twist this thing to defend your position [6:57] for letting him lie to you and the American public and the citizens of Michigan. And here, [7:03] let me tell you what that was about. I'm happy to talk to you about what that was about. [7:07] So what happened was we had relationships where Israel and Egypt had relationships in their [7:12] intelligence services that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to undo. And what that would have meant [7:18] is more violence in the region. So as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I said, we're going to [7:22] have to find a way to try to not sever that relationship, which they did, by the way. [7:27] And so listen, when you talk about the Muslim Brotherhood as an ideology, it's a political [7:34] group. Five Muslim countries have banned the Muslim Brotherhood because they're so extreme. [7:40] And Abdul El-Sayed not only has family relations, which he lied about, he not only had his own [7:47] letter that he said supporting them, including purging the press. I don't know about you, [7:52] but you should probably be concerned about that. And secondly, you had this idea. [7:57] Talk about your words. I mean, you don't deny your words. [7:59] Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I got it. You're trying to defend Abdul. I understand that. [8:04] The other part of that is the Muslim Brotherhood, only one candidate in the country did they support [8:10] a primary win. One, Abdul El-Sayed. The money that he gets ought to be a factor in this. So you take [8:17] his way he thinks, the way he supported them. And by the way, the Muslim Brotherhood immediately [8:23] started making women as second class citizens. I think that's an issue. I mean, that's just not [8:29] consistent with American values. And so if you're going to elect somebody to go to the United States [8:34] Senate who wants to be on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we probably should know this. And as a [8:39] former FBI guy, I can tell you this, Kristen, when you lie about who you are, he said he was a physician, [8:45] he's not. When he said he's a dual citizen of Egypt, we don't think that he is. He does have [8:50] an MD. When you say that you're an immigrant from North Africa, those are disqualifying for you [8:55] because you've lied about who you are. Congressman, I'm asking you about your words versus coming back [9:01] and pushing back on us. I asked Abdul El-Sayed plenty of tough questions. And by the way, moderate Muslims [9:05] across Michigan have reached out to our campaign and are as concerned as our Chaldean friends, [9:11] Let me ask you about your words, though. Let me ask you about your words and the words of President [9:17] Trump. President Trump says your opponent is a violent terrorist, violent. Again, there's just no proof of [9:24] that. And he has denounced. He was asked directly if he denounces the Muslim Brotherhood. He has. Do you agree [9:30] with calling him a violent terrorist? That's not true. Hold on. Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist? [9:34] He said, the guy said, are you going to answer the question? Hold on. Will you disavow? And he said, [9:39] yeah, absolutely. I'll answer the question. Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist? [9:43] Is that up to your standard? No, I don't. I've never called him a terrorist. I've never called [9:48] him a terrorist. This election is about me versus Abdul. I mean, he's a Democrat Socialist of America [9:54] aligned candidate who has these pretty radical support groups that don't like America. I think those [10:01] are issues people ought to decide their election on. And by the way, we've lived under what their [10:06] policies are. And we've got higher prices and higher taxes here in Michigan under the Democrat [10:10] control. And what they're talking about doing is making that worse here. Congressman, we're almost [10:17] out of time. So let me just ask you big picture. Do you consider yourself to be a MAGA Republican? [10:25] Listen, I'm going to tell you something. This is I get you guys on the national press, [10:29] but this is a little bit disgusting to me. You know what you don't cover? The chairman of the [10:34] Democrat party just came out and said he cannot, the former chairman, sorry, he cannot vote for [10:41] Abdul. The current senator's finance chairman. Congressman, I'm asking you about you. [10:47] I'm just asking you about you. This is important. This is important. No, this is about us. [10:52] Because the Democrat coalitions that we have are the fastest growing coalitions we have. [10:58] Jewish Democrats say we can't vote for him. African-Americans in Detroit and Pontiac and [11:03] Flint say we can't vote for him. Senator Cory Booker came out after a meeting and said this guy is a [11:09] fringe candidate. Congressman, what about Muslim members of your community who feel alienated by [11:14] what you are saying? What do you say to those constituents? Well, you know what I say to the [11:21] ones who are calling our campaign? No, to the ones who feel alienated. Remember, the Muslim [11:27] brotherhood is banned in five Muslim countries. This is not about Islam. It's not about how he prays. [11:34] It is about his adherence to this radical Islamic agenda. When you're here in Michigan, guess what? [11:41] A lot of the Muslims here are part of our community and an important part of our fabric here. [11:45] And what happens with that is they understand that they don't want to bring that hate, [11:50] that division and that anger here, which is why this huge Democrat coalition is building around us. [11:55] All you all want to do is talk about something else on the ground. [11:59] Are you a matter of a Republican? I've already answered the question, Kristen. [12:02] That's just what I want to know. Do you consider yourself to be a matter of a Republican? [12:05] Kristen, I'm going to go right back through this. There is a reason we have support from people in [12:11] Detroit and Flint and Pontiac because we're there talking about issues, talking about their [12:16] needs and future. And this guy is too extreme for them. He comes in and alienates these communities. [12:23] Nobody wants to talk about it on national press. We invite you to come to Michigan, [12:27] talk to some of these people. I think you'll have a very different opinion if you're open to it. [12:31] Okay. We really appreciate your time, Congressman Mike Rogers in this homestretch. Thank you so much.