Barack Obama Rallies for Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit as Trump Fires Back: “Grossly Incompetent”

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Former President Barack Obama rallied more than 4,000 people at Cass Technical High School in Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 24, for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, according to BridgeDetroit. “This election is our last, best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration,” Obama said. “It is the circuit breaker in the system. We gotta flip that circuit breaker.”

President Donald Trump fired back Sunday morning, Oct. 25. “Obama was a grossly incompetent President!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He paid off Iran with $Billions, and gave them a road to a Nuclear Weapon.” He went after El-Sayed, writing that “Michigan doesn’t want an arrogant, Open Borders, Fake Doctor, Jihadist,” and closed with “VOTE FOR MIKE ROGERS!” Trump is scheduled to rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday afternoon.

Details & Background

El-Sayed, a former Detroit and Wayne County health director, faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is leaving. A Sept. 30 Fox News poll showed El-Sayed at 50% and Rogers at 49%. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, and Michigan is one of the races that could decide control. Rogers has pointed to a 2012 letter El-Sayed signed urging Egypt’s then-president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, to purge the police. El-Sayed denies any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Money is pouring into the race. Sen. Bernie Sanders committed an additional $1 million to El-Sayed’s joint fundraising committee on Oct. 22, after a New York Times report that AIPAC intended to provide up to $9 million to help Rogers, according to BridgeDetroit. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez donated $1 million to the same committee a week earlier. Obama also campaigned in Cleveland on Saturday before heading to Detroit. In the governor’s race, a Marist poll cited by BridgeDetroit shows Benson leading Republican John James 51% to 45%.

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Obama addressed the GOP attacks on El-Sayed head-on. “They will use lies and they will use fear, and they will use division,” he said, “and they may even use your name or your faith to somehow suggest that you are dangerous.” He added, “We have seen this movie before. I starred in it. I’ve got a long form birth certificate to prove it.” El-Sayed called Trump the “worst symptom” in politics rather than the “disease,” and on Sunday told reporters he didn’t think Trump “knows what he’s going to talk about.” Obama also attacked the administration’s Iran policy, saying, “Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world,” and mocked Trump’s White House renovations, saying, “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Rogers has hammered El-Sayed in the campaign’s final stretch, calling him on Saturday “the most radical, extreme, anti-American, anti-business candidate in the United States.” In a Fox News interview Friday, El-Sayed pushed back on questions about the Muslim Brotherhood, saying, “You are asking this question to raise a question about whether or not I have dual loyalties.” Rogers has stood by his claims.

Why This Matters to You

Michigan’s Senate race is one of a handful that will decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate. A Democratic majority would have the power to block President Trump’s judicial nominees, stall his agenda and launch investigations into his administration for the final two years of his term.

The race has also become a test of how voters weigh a candidate’s past statements and associations on national security. With Obama, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez all in for El-Sayed, and Trump personally campaigning for Rogers, Michigan voters face a sharp choice nine days before Election Day. Whatever they decide will be felt far beyond the state’s borders.