Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed got combative in an increasingly feisty interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier after questions over plans for universal health care and the candidate’s possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. When asked about ties to the Islamist group and his signature on a 2012 letter related to the group, El-Sayed tried to stop Baier’s question but eventually said, “I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The beginning of the interview was pretty cordial, and it began to turn when the topic of Medicare-for-All arose, which El-Sayed has been supportive of and even wrote a book about.
Baier asked if private insurance plans would remain available under the government-provided healthcare plan: “Millions of Michiganders have private insurance through work, including guys at the UAW negotiated hard for these deals. Will you tell them today that their plan goes away?”
In another combative exchange with @BretBaier, Abdul El-Sayed defended Medicare-for-All as Baier inquired if people would be able to keep private healthcare plans.
El-Sayed then would not answer whether middle-class taxes would go up, and also got mad when Baier mentioned… https://t.co/QGuA55N4qn pic.twitter.com/9iVP37JG4P— Nick (@nspin310) October 24, 2026
El-Sayed said, “No, I don’t want to take away anything,” to which Baier responded, “How is that possible?” El-Sayed then compared the private versus government-provided healthcare plans to public versus private schools and said, “I’m fine with people keeping their private insurance if that’s what they want, but I want guaranteed public insurance for everybody.”
Baier then asked, “Will the price tag and the middle-class taxes go up? Yes or no?” El-Sayed slyly responded, “Prices that people are paying are going to go down.” The pair then got into a back-and-forth, where Baier asked, “How much will the average family have to pay, to which El-Sayed responded and talked about taxing billionaires more.
Baier later reminded El-Sayed about what he recently said in a recent interview, where he said, “Well, sucks for them" when asked about people who would have to wait longer for MRIs under this healthcare plan:
BAIER: And asked about the quality of care and wait times, you were asked about that. If a family needs MRIs under a government-run plan and you responded, “Well, sucks for them.”
EL-SAYED: No, I did not say ‘Sucks for them.’
BAIER: Well, that’s the quote.
Later, El-Sayed complained, “You're going to selectively pick a quote out of context,” before Baier said, “It’s your quote.” El-Sayed later said he would take back the comments as he said, “I’d like to understand the whole quote.”
Abdul El-Sayed’s interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier got feisty over a question about El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed would not let Baier ask the question at the start, but eventually, he responded, “I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” and he… pic.twitter.com/JbDRUp7Ylk— Nick (@nspin310) October 23, 2026
Furthermore, El-Sayed turned very combative when Baier dared to mention the recent focus on El-Sayed possible connections or family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Baier began, “Mike Rogers has been hitting this Muslim Brotherhood thing. I know you don't want to talk about your family and history there. But, he goes back –”
El-Sayed stopped Baier, and said, “Let me just stop there. You are asking this question to raise a question about if i have dual loyalty.” He then said, “Let me just be clear, my loyalty will be to the Constitution of the United States. And as every senator who's ever served, I'll swear an oath to the Constitution.”
He continued to try to stop Baier from continuing his line of questioning, “So, I’m not interested - I’m not interested in whatever you pull out in a 2012 statement in a letter. You're going to — pull that out of context. “
Baier said, “This is Rogers’ campaign. I’m just asking a question,” before El-Sayed told Baier ot “be a journalist” before he finally gave some semblance of an answer to the question and complained that the Muslim Brotherhood topic was even being discussed:
So, as a journalist, if you're asking me a question about my allegiance of the Constitution, I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I'm interested in serving the United States. I'm interested in swearing an oath to the Constitution that every senator has sworn an oath to.
If the question about my faith is the issue, which Mike Rogers wants it to be, I think it is sad and beneath him, and frankly beneath the President of the United States to make that an issue because, under our Constitution, you're guaranteed the right to pray as you choose to pray.
El-Sayed imploring Baier to stop asking him about the Muslim Brotherhood was part of a continued trend of El-Sayed being combative to the question about possible ties, as shown when he got upset when asked similar questions by NBC’s Tom Llamas last week.
It also came as some in the media have come to the defense of El-Sayed, like ABC’s Good Morning America claiming Republican candidate Mike Rogers tied to the Muslim Brotherhood “without evidence,” and progressive cable network MS NOW claiming the allegations were a “gift” to El-Sayed.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
October 23, 2026
6:22:01 PM Eastern
(...)
BRET BAIER: Medicare-for-All. Millions of Michiganders have private insurance through work, including guys at the UAW negotiated hard for these deals. Will you tell them today that their plan goes away?
ABDUL EL-SAYED: No, I don’t want to take away anything.
BAIER: How is that possible?
EL-SAYED: It's about providing the same baseline healthcare for everybody. It;s the same notion - it’s like saying you have public schools that somehow you can't have private schools. I’m fine with people keeping their private insurance if that’s what they want, but I want guaranteed public insurance for everybody.
BAIER: That’s not what you said before, right? You haven't described it before in that way?
EL_SAYED: It's exactly what I wrote about in my book on Medicare-for-all in 2021. There’s a question of what do you with private insurance. I have no issue with private insurance. I’ve got an issue with the fact that people don't have guaranteed public insurance, and that’s exactly that I’m going to solve.
BAIER: Will the price tag and the middle-class taxes go up? Yes or no?
EL-SAYED: Prices that people are paying are going to go down. We sit on $225 billion in medical debt in this country. That's more than the GDP of half of the United States. So, we could do a lot better than we're doing.
BAIER: So, let me get this straight. You're okay with private plans, you're saying middle-class taxes are not going up under Medicare for all?
EL-SAYED: I said, no, prices are not going to go up. The price that we pay for healthcare is not going to go up.
BAIER: So, how much.
EL-SAYED: Here’s the thing about it -
BAIER: How much wil the average family have to pay?
EL-SAYED: So, here’s the question. I’ll just tell you this. Number one, as I said very clearly, we need to tax billionaires wealth. We can get trillions back to the economy by taxing billionaires at their wealthy around 8%.
You think about what that would mean in terms of subsidizing a program like Medicare-for-all.
BAIER: And asked about the quality of care and wait times, you were asked about that. If a family needs MRIs under a government-run plan and you responded, “Well, sucks for them.”
EL-SAYED: No, I did not say ‘Sucks for them.’
BAIER: Well, that’s the quote
EL-SAYED (October 16 Interview on UAW YouTube): People will tell me, ‘Well, Abdul, people will me at the end of the day I have a friend whose cousin who used to own a goldfish, their former owner, that person had to wait in a long line for MRI. And I said, well that sucks for them but also, that person has never had to worry about medical debt.
[To Baier] I responded specifically, when I was on your channel the last time, we were talking about wait times, and your colleague asked me about wait times. You know what the average wait time is for a cardiologist in America right now? It's about 2 1/2 months. I think it's crazy that you have to wait 2 1/2 months in a private healthcare system.
BAIER: Yeah, but you know the quote that you said. The interview about the MRIs
EL-SAYED: You're going to selectively pick a quote out of context.
BAIER: It’s your quote.
EL-SAYED: Let me answer your question. The question is about wait times. Wait times for a cardiologist in our current system is 2 1/2 months. I think we can get that down.
I’ll also tell you this –
(CROSSTALK)
BAIER: Would you like to take back that sentence for waiting for MRIs?
EL-SAYED: Of course, no one wants it to suck for anybody. That’s entirely the point. Right now, its sucks for all of us because we live in an economy where we're held hostage to big corporations. It sucks for the people who have to pay $4,500 for a deductible and go intor medical ddebt. It sucke when you have to 2 1/2 months to see a cardiologist. I'm trying to solve that problem.
BAIER: Out of context or not, do you want to take that back?
EL-SAYED: Of course – you want to pick that quote out of context.
BAIER: No, no. I don’t. It’s your words
EL_SAYED: I’d like to understand the whole quote. But also they shouldn't suffer for anybody. Which is why, Bret, we need Medicare for all.
(...)
6:25:16 PM Eastern
BAIER: Mike Rogers has been hitting this Muslim Brotherhood thing. I know you don't want to talk about your family and history there. But, he goes back –
EL-SAYED: Bret, Bret, Bret, let me just, let me just. Bret, Bret, Bret, let me just. No, no, no, no. Let me just stop there. You are asking this question to raise a question about if i have dual loyalty.
BAIER: I’m not. This is specific.
EL-SAYED: Let me just be clear, my loyalty will be to the Constitution of the United States.
BAIER: Thank you.
EL-SAYED: And as every senator who's ever served, I'll swear an oath to the Constitution.
BAIER: He’s saying –
EL-SAYED: So, I’m not interested - I’m not interested in whatever you pull out in a 2012 statement in a letter. You're going to — pull that out of context.
[CROSSTALK[
You're going to ask questions about my loyalties. Let me just be clear.
BAIER: This is Rogers’ campaign. I’m just asking a question.
EL_SAYED: Don’t be Roger’s campaign. Be a journalist
BAIER: I’m asking a quesiton
EL-SAYED: Be a journalist
BAIER: I am.
EL-SAYED: So, as a journalist, if you're asking me a question about my allegiance of the Constitution, I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I'm interested in serving the United States. I'm interested in swearing an oath to the Constitution that every senator has sworn an oath to.
If the question about my faith is the issue, which Mike Rogers wants it to be, I think it is sad and beneath him, and frankly beneath the President of the United States to make that an issue because, under our Constitution, you're guaranteed the right to pray as you choose to pray.
(...)
