El-Sayed and Rogers exchange sharp attacks in final Michigan Senate debate

Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed clashed onstage Wednesday during the second, and final, debate in the increasingly bitter Michigan Senate race. El-Sayed repeatedly argued his opponent is and would be a “sock puppet” for President Trump in the Senate, while Rogers cast his opponent as untrustworthy and trying to run from past, further-left positions. 

The neck-and-neck race is one of the nation’s most closely watched contests in the November midterms and could help determine which party wins control of the Senate. Democrats hope to take advantage of Mr. Trump’s unpopularity and voters’ frustration with inflation and the Iran War. Republicans have sought to capitalize on divisions between progressives like El-Sayed and more moderate Democrats on Middle East policy and Medicare for All. 

El-Sayed called Rogers’ platform a “MAGA vision” and argued the former congressman “stand[s] hip-to-hip with Donald Trump on all of his worst policies, the policies that are raising the price of your gas, making it impossible to afford your groceries.” The Democratic former health official responded to attack lines by inviting the audience to play “MAGA bingo.”

“He’s going to bend to Donald Trump because he is a sock puppet for the man,” said El-Sayed.

Rogers pushed back at one point, saying: “He wants to make this about Donald Trump. The bingo game ought to be: ‘How many times can he put Trump in any answer?'” 

Asked by reporters after the debate if he’s planning to attend Mr. Trump’s Michigan rally on Sunday, which El-Sayed brought up, Rogers said he’d go but didn’t know all the final details yet.

During the debate, Rogers argued El-Sayed has not been honest about his platform, accusing him of engaging in a “pattern of deception.”

“Think about this: there are so many Democrats who are coming out today and saying they can’t vote for Abdul El-Sayed because he’s too extreme,” Rogers said. He also claimed he’s “doing exceptionally well with Jewish Democrats who are literally afraid,” alluding to some community members’ reluctance to support El-Sayed, a frequent critic of the Israeli government.

The debate was somewhat tamer than the two candidates’ first faceoff earlier this month, which featured insults and interruptions in virtually every answer. But it was still testy.

One of the more contentious moments came after Rogers tried to link El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood and suggested he had the same supporters as terror groups like Hamas — allegations El-Sayed has vehemently pushed back against.

Earlier this month, several news outlets reported on social media posts by El-Sayed’s half sister suggesting the Democratic candidate’s mother had supported the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group and political movement founded in her home country of Egypt. 

El-Sayed has disavowed any connection to the organization, and has noted that he wasn’t raised by his birthmother since his parents divorced when he was young. Rogers said El-Sayed was trying to make himself look like “a victim.”

“You can grin and you can smile and you can talk real pretty, but I’m going to tell you what, that is a risk to our national security,” Rogers said. He told reporters after the debate that he questions whether El-Sayed can get a security clearance if elected. 

El-Sayed called the allegations “shameful.”

“He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I’ve never been a part of, because [of] my mom, who’s a nurse in Missouri?” the Democrat said. “It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s actually really quite beneath you, Mike.”

El-Sayed pressed Rogers on the Iran war, pointing to the conflict as the cause of high consumer prices and casting the Republican as a hawk who has “a war for everything.”

“We need a War Powers Resolution, rather than a senator who is going to stand hip-to-hip with Donald Trump on this war that made no sense when it started and certainly makes no sense now,” El-Sayed said when asked how he would bring costs down.

Rogers has called on the war to end, but also said on the debate stage that if Iran is allowed to control the Strait of Hormuz or build a nuclear weapon that gas could rise even higher. 

The moderators asked El-Sayed whether he views Iran as a significant threat to U.S. national security. It was a variation on a question during the first debate, when El-Sayed was asked whether Iran or Israel is a bigger threat, which he called a “ridiculous hypothetical.”

El-Sayed said Wednesday that “there’s no doubt that Iran has posed a threat,” but he argued “that threat had been contained” by the Obama-era deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump ended that deal during his first term in office.

Rogers said Iran is “absolutely” a threat and argued El-Sayed’s previous answers on Iran were “an absolute nonstarter if you’re going to send somebody … to the United States Senate.”

Meanwhile, Rogers pushed El-Sayed on some of his progressive policy views, including his support for Medicare for All, a single-payer healthcare plan.

“Money in your pocket? You’ll be lucky to have a damn pair of pants when you’re done,” said Rogers, arguing El-Sayed’s policies would require significant tax hikes.

El-Sayed responded by saying: “Right now, the folks pulling the money out of your pocket are the big corporations who are buying his campaign.” Asked by WTX US News after the debate about how much the plan would cost, El-Sayed argued if implemented it’d be less expensive than the costs of healthcare currently, and said the platform has bipartisan support. 

On tariffs, El-Sayed criticized Mr. Trump’s tariffs but said he is open to some import duties. He said, “You don’t give all the chemo all at once, all at the same time.”

Rogers called the president’s tariffs a “mixed bag,” questioning the trade war with Canada but saying the “reshoring of manufacturing is underway.”