▶ Watch Video: Michigan candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers: The 60 Minutes Interviews
With 48 hours to go before polls close in Michigan, few midterm races in the country have captured as much attention as the contest playing out between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers.
Rogers is seeking to become Michigan’s first Republican U.S. senator in 25 years, as Democrats try to hold onto the seat.
The contest has become increasingly tense in recent days, with El-Sayed engaged in a public rift with his primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, who he beat by fewer than 15,000 votes.
In a stunning turn, Stevens, who had been expected to appear alongside El-Sayed at a campaign event, instead appeared with Rogers Sunday at a Detroit church service – and endorsed him for Senate.
“I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” she said in a video posted Sunday on social media.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, called Stevens’ move a “despicable betrayal.”
It was only the latest turn in a hotly contested, closely watched race, which is why we led tonight’s 60 Minutes broadcast with this story. Correspondent Ross Douthat sat down with both candidates as they made their cases to Michigan voters: on the economy, healthcare, Israel and other issues that have come to define the race.
The contest is close and contentious. On the campaign trail, President Trump has been throwing his support behind Rogers and disparaging El-Sayed as a “jihadist.”
Along with the broadcast segment, we decided to post extended interviews with El-Sayed and Rogers. We’re doing so for a simple reason: these conversations are in the public interest. And we owe our viewers as much transparency as possible—especially in a race of such consequence.
60 Minutes sat down with each candidate for more than an hour in late October. In their interviews, both candidates made several claims that were false, misleading or unsupported by our reporting. We believe it is important to share those claims and provide the facts and context viewers need to evaluate them:
Rogers claims El-Sayed wrote a letter supporting Muslim Brotherhood
Rogers claimed that El-Sayed “wrote a letter in support for the Muslim Brotherhood … when they took over Egypt in 20 — whatever that was, 2012 and 2013 — that I think is very, very concerning. And, again, it’s not about how he prays. It is his ideology. It’s the way he thinks.”
Our reporting shows that after the Arab Spring, El-Sayed was among 46 Egyptian-Americans who signed a letter addressed to Egypt’s new democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. The letter urged Morsi to take action against allies of the country’s previous authoritarian leader.
At the time, the United States had not designated the organization as a terrorist group. Earlier this year, the Trump administration called branches of the organization terrorist entities.
El-Sayed denies any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and has publicly disavowed the group.
El-Sayed claims Michigan utility DTE “buys off almost every politician in our state”
When asked to give an example of a monopoly that has held power over an extended period of time, El-Sayed named DTE, saying, “They have raised our rates faster than in 46 other states over the past 20 years. They buy off almost every politician in our state, so that, you know, they all look the other way and they just make money hand over fist.”
DTE and its political action committee have made extensive, publicly reported contributions to Michigan politicians, including a large majority of state legislators, but 60 Minutes found no evidence that DTE made improper payments in exchange for votes or regulatory decisions.
El-Sayed claims Rogers “made 14 million bucks” after leaving Congress
El-Sayed said “the rules of our game in politics are about taking corporate money to do corporate bidding and then make money on the back end of the same corporations you’re regulating” and suggested his opponent has “played that game.”
“He made 14 million bucks and moved to Florida, bought a mansion and two yachts, and he’s watching Donald Trump play that game and make billions,” El-Sayed claimed.
Financial disclosures show Rogers’ household net worth rose substantially after he left office in 2015, to an estimated $7 million to $14 million or more, but those figures reflect net worth, not earnings, and 60 Minutes was unable to verify that Rogers made $14 million.
As for the yachts, Rogers registered two boats in Maryland (32 feet and 39 feet, respectively) and sold one before registering the other.
Rogers calls El-Sayed a Democratic socialist
Rogers called his opponent “a very gifted Democrat Socialist of America.” While El-Sayed has campaigned with some prominent Democratic socialists, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, nor has the group officially endorsed him.
When Douthat asked El-Sayed, “Were you ever a socialist,” the candidate responded: “No. I’m a capitalist.”
Rogers says El-Sayed wants to defund the police
While expounding on El-Sayed as a Democratic socialist, Rogers said: “If you look at his issue set, defund the police, let people out of prison, all of the things that are associated with that Democrat socialist, big government — government taking over private health care, you lose your private health insurance, that’s all DSA.”
It’s true that El-Sayed called for defunding the police back in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. El-Sayed recently called it “a pretty dumb and unnuanced slogan” but said “that was the conversation that was happening.” Most recently while campaigning for the Senate, El-Sayed has called for increased funding for police recruitment, retention and retirement.
