The exchange follows a week of scrutiny after El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim US senator if elected, repeatedly answered "No" on NBC's Meet the Press when asked whether he or his family had any ties to the group. The Washington Free Beacon subsequently published 2012 social media posts from his half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, stating that "my family has long been Muslim Brotherhood," that some relatives had been jailed over their membership, and that their mother was active in the organization while attending Alexandria University in Egypt in the 1970s. The outlet also reported on a 2012 Arabic-language statement El-Sayed signed urging Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi to "purge" the media and judiciary, as well as a deleted 2021 Substack post in which El-Sayed defended Mohamed Soltan, the son of a senior Brotherhood figure.
El-Sayed dismissed his sister's posts as "hearsay" in a follow-up NBC News interview and told the Washington Post he was not raised by his mother. His campaign and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the allegations "racist" and "untrue," while Republican Senate opponent Mike Rogers and allied group Great Lakes Future Committee launched television ads in Detroit and Grand Rapids highlighting the discrepancy, and President Donald Trump accused El-Sayed of being a member of the group.