Mike Rogers Shuts Down Kristen Welker's Gotcha Games in Contentious 'Meet the Press' Interview

With just a little over a week left before Election Day, the candidates are busy making their final sales pitches to voters, both in person and in interviews.

Among them has been Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who has pressed the pedal even harder since the final debate was held between himself and Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed last Wednesday.

As we reported, Rogers took it to the next level with El-Sayed in that debate, leaving the former Wayne County health department director bumbling, fumbling, and gaslighting on issues like education, ICE, supporting law enforcement, and, most importantly, loyalty to America and Michiganders. The debate was so bad for El-Sayed that he and his campaign had to put out a statement in the aftermath in which he laughably declared that he was a capitalist and emphatically denied that he was a socialist. 

Naturally, when a Democrat has a bad debate night, the mainstream media will rush in to try and rescue them, something we saw Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker try to do Sunday during a contentious back-and-forth with Rogers over El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Rogers put on a master class in not only not accepting Welker's premises but also in setting the record straight when she tried to play gotcha games:

KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. Let me ask you about one of the big issues that you’ve raised in this campaign, which is Abdul El-Sayed, your challenger’s background. President Trump posted overnight calling Abdul El-Sayed “a Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist who hates Jews and Blacks and Americans.” As you know, there’s no evidence to support any of those claims. Do you agree with the president, Congressman? Yes or no?

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS: Boy, you and the — I don’t understand the national press. They have to work and twist themselves in knots not to understand Abdul’s relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood. When you write a letter, supporting of Morsi in 2012 and 2013, saying you should “purge the police” and “purge the media,” and by the way, he will not answer this question. Look at The New York Times, who said, “He just won’t answer this question,” there’s a reason. He has [been] getting money from groups that support the Muslim Brotherhood. Money from groups that support Hamas and Hezbollah. That’s a thinking issue. I — I wore the uniform of the United States, Kristen, so that people could vote any way that they want to in this country. It’s not how you pray; it’s how you think.

When Welker tried to claim that El-Sayed had denounced the Muslim Brotherhood, Rogers rejected the argument, refusing to let her get away with sugarcoating his record. He told her, amid an exchange in which each one was talking over the other, that "I don’t know why you give this guy a pass" and "I get you guys want to defend this guy," as he pointed out that El-Sayed dodged questions on the issue from The New York Times.

Exasperated that Rogers wouldn't let up, Welker went the gotcha route, trying to provide "context" for El-Sayed and bizarrely suggesting Rogers' position in 2012 on the Muslim Brotherhood wasn't that different from El-Sayed's. Rogers again wasn't having it and proceeded to correct the record:

KRISTEN WELKER:Let me ask — let me just get some context to the 2012 letter that you’re talking about. Egyptians were rising up against a brutal dictatorship. El-Sayed, as you said, he joined that letter which supported the protesters against Egypt’s dictator, not the Muslim Brotherhood as a group. But this is what you said, Congressman, in 2012. I want to put up what you said at the time.

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS: Oh my gosh.

KRISTEN WELKER: “Do I think there are moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals we are going to have to reach out to and talk to? Yes. But we are going to have to watch it carefully.” Do you acknowledge that at the time, in 2012, you were willing to work with some moderate members, as you said, of the Muslim Brotherhood?

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS: That — that is so much out of context, I wish you would’ve done this for Abdul El-Sayed. That would’ve been a great interview. But what you’re doing now is trying to twist this thing to defend your position for letting him lie to you –

KRISTEN WELKER: I don’t have a position.

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS: – and the American public and the citizens of Michigan –

KRISTEN WELKER: Congressman, respectfully, I don’t have a position –

FMR. REP. MIKE ROGERS: And here, let me tell you what that was about. I’m happy to talk to you about what that was about. So what happened was, we had relationships where Israel and Egypt had relationships in their intelligence services that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to undo. And what that would’ve meant is more violence in the region. So as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I said, “We’re going to have to find a way to try to not sever that relationship,” which they did, by the way. And so listen, there are — when you talk about the Muslim Brotherhood as an ideology, it’s a political group. Five Muslim countries have banned the Muslim Brotherhood because they’re so extreme. And Abdul El-Sayed not only has family relations, which he lied about, he not only had his own letter that he said supporting them, including purging the press. I don’t know about you, but you should probably be concerned about that...

[...]

The other part of that is the Muslim Brotherhood, only one candidate in the country, did they support a primary win. One. Abdul El-Sayed. The money that he gets ought to be a factor in this. So you take his — the way he thinks, the way he supported them, and by the way, the Muslim Brotherhood immediately started making women as second-class citizens. I think that’s an issue. I mean, that’s just not consistent with American values.

Watch:

"YOU'RE TRYING TO DEFEND ABDUL AND I UNDERSTAND THAT": Watch as @MikeRogersForMI WRECKS NBC's Kristen Welker for her softball interview of Abdul El-Sayed two weeks ago, and her false assertion of El-Sayed disavowals of any personal or familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. https://t.co/u7apALLDvO

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 25, 2026

Relatedly, Welker was fact-checked on X about her false statement that El-Sayed supposedly supported the "protesters" in that 2012 letter he signed:

@DemsForMike @RFSWarRoom https://t.co/C6cDnIrGEG pic.twitter.com/hSPbYC1I5n

— BnwoMnwo (@BnwoMnwoNow) October 25, 2026

There will be no apology or correction from Welker because this is just what they do: go to bat for Democrats when they appear to be on the ropes, which is the situation El-Sayed is currently in, with nine days to go before voters have the final say on who they want to represent them in the United States Senate. But hats off to Mike Rogers for being locked in and understanding what Welker was trying to do - and then effectively countering it.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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