Former Rep. Mike Rogers and his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, tore into each other at their second Michigan Senate debate Wednesday evening.
Rogers, a former FBI special agent and the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, clashed with El-Sayed over the personal barbs, accusations and fierce divides that have defined one of the countryâÂÂs most anticipated Senate elections.
Here are some of the most noteworthy moments from the fiery faceoff.
As evidence of Rogersâ alignment with President Donald Trump, El-Sayed accused him of backing the war in Iran, a conflict El-Sayed himself described as “aimless.”
“He’s got a war for everything, and he won’t back off the war now. He supports this war,” El-Sayed said.
“If you don’t believe me, I want you to pay attention. On Sunday, when Donald Trump comes here at the invitation of Mike Rogers to remind you that, in fact, Donald Trump is on the ballot through Mike Rogers. They are hip to hip on this war, and you are paying the cost,” he added, referring to one of Rogers’ upcoming campaign events.
Rogers quickly fired back, reiterating a moment from their first debate when El-Sayed refused to answer whether Israel or Iran posed a greater threat to the U.S.
“My opponent can’t even condemn the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], which is the terrorist enforcement arm of Iran, and doesn’t believe Iran is any more dangerous than Israel. This is an absolute nonstarter,” Rogers said.
THE MEDICARE FOR ALL TRADE-OFFS SOCIALISTS AREN’T TALKING ABOUT, ACCORDING TO EXPERTS
At one point during the debate, Rogers accused El-Sayed of deleting social media content about defunding the police â a progressive stance that circulated among far-left Democrats in 2020 after the death of George Floyd.
“I will tell you this: he did call for defunding the police ⦠[and] he deleted all of this material. Why would you do that? Why would you go through and take all of that time to delete all of the material? X videos, comments, podcast. Why? Because he was passionate about defunding the police,” Rogers said.
“As a matter of fact, he asked the Muslim Brotherhood head, Morsi, in Egypt to defund the police there, too,” Rogers added, referring to the former Egyptian president associated with the group.
The last remark triggered a fierce reaction from El-Sayed, who has fended off questions about ties to the Muslim Brotherhood throughout his campaign.
“He keeps raising this question about this association with the organization,” El-Sayed said. “It’s really quite beneath you.”
Although Fox News Digital has not discovered any links between El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood, critics have pointed to El-Sayed’s ties to the Muslim Students Association (MSA), a group listed as part of a strategy memorandum for North America written by one of the Muslim BrotherhoodâÂÂs members, Mohamed Akram.
El-Sayed served as the vice president of the MSA chapter at the University of Michigan during his time there as a senior in 2007, according to College Fix.
Throughout the night, El-Sayed doubled down on promises to expand government p
