OPINION:
Ask Michigan Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed if he condemns the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian regime, or if he regards Israel as a staunch American ally and supports the Jewish state’s right to exist as a nation, and his answers lead to more questions.
Move over, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the COVID czar whose “I am science” claim made his “perhaps” and “potentially” proclamations of death and doom for disobeying government all the more confusing. There’s a new master of obfuscation in town. That crown now passes to El-Sayed.
On ABC News, El-Sayed was asked if he would condemn Iran’s current regime.
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“They’ve engaged in horrific acts; there’s no question about that,” he said.
“I am for democracy. I’m for human rights. It’s what I want for our people. It’s what I want for all people, right? And there’s no question that that regime has engaged in acts that are terrible,” he said.
But he fell short of condemning the regime.
“But the big picture question is not — like, for us is, what’s in our best interest? Go back to the Obama administration,” he said, before rabbit trailing into the JCPOA, President Trump’s two terms, the war, the current White House’s mission with this war.
Then he was asked again: “Do you condemn the current Iranian regime?”
El-Sayed said, “I condemn a lot of their action.”
But he fell short of condemning the regime.
In a recent town hall, El-Sayed was asked,, by an attendee named Tommy, if he disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tommy: “Abdul! Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”
El-Sayed: “What’s your name? No, what’s your name? No, what’s your name? No, no, what’s your name? … I’m asking you a simple question. You give me your name, I’ll answer your question.”
Tommy: “OK, Tommy,”
El-Sayed: “Hi, Tommy, how are you?”
Tommy: “I’m great.”
El-Sayed: “Are you? Do you know what the Constitution of the United States is?”
Tommy: “I have one simple question. Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”
El-Sayed: “Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.”
But does he?
He is careful to never explicitly state, “I disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.” When a Newsmax journalist followed up a few days after the town hall and asked El-Sayed, “Of an exchange you’ve had with a voter named Tommy about the Muslim Brotherhood … do you think you’ve done enough to disavow that? To critics who say they weren’t satisfied with your answer?” El-Sayed replied, “I’m going to ask you to watch that clip [of the town hall] a lot more times. I clearly disavowed it.”
Only he didn’t.
Not really,
It shouldn’t be a challenge for any political candidate in the United States to say, “I disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.” It shouldn’t be a struggle for any politician on the campaign trail in America to state clearly, “I condemn the Iranian regime.”
But it is for El-Sayed.
He ducks and dodges on speaking clearly on these two issues.
In the same vein that Barack Obama, during his presidency, avoided using phrases like “Islamic terrorism,” opting instead for more generic descriptors that stayed away from invoking the Muslim faith, so, too, El-Sayed sidesteps using the key words that would clearly indicate his condemnation. What America wants to hear is El-Sayed saying, “I disavow the Muslim Brotherhood; I condemn the Iranian regime.” What America actually gets is El-Sayed saying, “I do. I disavow it. Absolutely.”
That’s obfuscation.
“So you don’t consider Israel to be an American ally” — a follow-up question to El-Sayed on ABC, after he ducked the first time it was asked.
El-Sayed: “An ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn’t be fighting is not an ally. It’s like — I mean, do you have kids? It’s like, if your kid has a friend who keeps bumming off their money and then talks about them behind their back and then gets them into fights with other friends, what would you tell your kid to do with that friend? You’d probably tell them maybe it’s not actually a friend. … I think it’s time to realize that Israel is not actually our friend.”
On Israel, El-Sayed is pretty clear.
But on Iran? On the Muslim Brotherhood? Not so much.
It’s easier for El-Sayed to call out Israel as a potential enemy of America than the real, genuine, fact-based enemies of America.
All his obfuscation means one thing: El-Sayed clearly does not belong in any political office in America.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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