Ted Cruz Says ‘Americans Will Die’ If El-Sayed Joins Senate Intel Committee - Newsweek
Republican Senator Ted Cruz has said there is a risk "Americans will die" if Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is elected to the United States Senate.
Speaking in Grosse Pointe Woods in Michigan on Wednesday, Cruz said: "I want to tell you a risk that you may not have focused on. It's an aspect of how the Senate operates. If, God forbid, [El-Sayed] gets elected to the Senate, when you get elected to the Senate there is no security clearance process, none. You are granted the highest-level security clearance simply by virtue of being elected to the constitutional office of being a Senator.
"If Abdul El-Sayed becomes Senator for Michigan, there is absolutely nothing to stop [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer from placing Abdul El-Sayed on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Senate Intelligence Committee has access to our most closely guarded secrets. And If I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result."
El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in a high-profile Senate race in Michigan—a closely divided battleground that Trump carried by 1.4 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
El-Sayed's opponents—including Rogers and President Donald Trump—have claimed during the campaign that the Democrat has ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In particular, El-Sayed has faced questions over a resurfaced 2012 post from his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, in which she discussed speaking to her mother "about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early '70s while she was in college."
El-Sayed has repeatedly denied any personal or family ties to the Islamist group and has said he was not raised by his mother. If elected, he would become the first Muslim U.S. senator.
Newsweek contacted Cruz and El-Sayed's campaign for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928. Some nations have designated the organization or certain branches as terrorist groups.
The State Department announced in January that the U.S. had imposed terrorist designations against the Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood has also received a terrorist designation. The U.S. has not designated the entire organization as a terrorist group.
A PolitiFact fact-check published this week reported that El-Sayed “has never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has disavowed the group, and holds political positions that conflict with its views.”
During his speech, Cruz also said Rogers was focused on Michigan and described El-Sayed as “a theocratic zealot.”
He later called the Democratic candidate a “jihadist leprechaun.”
Senators on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have access to intelligence sources and methods, programs, and budgets, according to its website.
It says the president is legally required to make sure the committee is kept “fully and currently informed” of intelligence activities, including covert actions and any significant intelligence failure.
Recent polling suggests El-Sayed has a narrow advantage over Rogers in a close contest to replace Democratic incumbent Gary Peters.
A CNN poll released Thursday placed El-Sayed at 49 percent support and Rogers at 42 percent. It was conducted among 786 likely voters from October 20 to 27, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
An InsiderAdvantage survey of 1,200 likely voters, conducted from October 21 to 22, put El-Sayed just ahead, 47 percent to 46 percent. This poll had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
Meanwhile, A Marist poll conducted from October 15 to 18 found El-Sayed leading 50 percent to 48 percent among 1,185 likely voters, with a 4.3-point margin of error.
Election analyzer Cook Political Report rates the Michigan race as a toss-up.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
