Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers addresses Trump's terrorist label for opponent Abdul El-Sayed

Mike Rogers, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a Sunday interview on NBC's Meet the Press that he has never called his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, a terrorist. He was responding to President Trump, who had described El-Sayed as a jihadist and a violent terrorist. The two are in a tight race to be decided in November, after El-Sayed won the Democratic primary in August. In the interview Rogers also discussed Trump's agenda. In a separate appearance on Breitbart News Saturday, Rogers said his campaign is drawing support from longtime Democratic voters. He said the contest is about how a person thinks, not how a person prays, and noted his own and his son's military service. He cited a 2012 letter El-Sayed signed about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, which Rogers said backed the Muslim Brotherhood and urged it to purge the police and press. He also pointed to El-Sayed's past leadership of the University of Michigan's Muslim Student Association.

Right-leaning outlets, Breitbart and RealClearPolitics, present Rogers's own case. Breitbart's exclusive leads with his warning about El-Sayed's alleged Muslim Brotherhood links, the Morsi letter, and his claim that the group celebrated the primary result on its website. Its headline calls the race about the heart and soul of America. RealClearPolitics headlines Rogers's complaint that the national media defends El-Sayed. Left-leaning outlets, NBC News and Raw Story, center on the Meet the Press exchange. NBC leads with Rogers distancing himself from Trump's terrorist label. Raw Story frames the interview as going off the rails when Rogers was pressed on a MAGA question. The sides overlap on the interview itself but differ on emphasis: the right gives Rogers's accusations and media criticism, the left gives his answers on Trump's remarks. Alternative and independent outlets had not reported the story at the time of writing.