MAGA Operative Behind Muslim Brotherhood Question to Abdul El-Sayed

A Republican political operative tried to trap the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, into a viral “gotcha” moment. He ended up becoming the story instead.

On Saturday, a man posing as a young Michigan voter named Tommy at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, asked El-Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed, sensing the bigoted motive behind the question, immediately disavowed the question, and pressed Tommy on why he was asking him specifically that question.

Tommy was evasive, repeatedly saying that he had not heard El-Sayed disavow the organization, and El-Sayed pointed out that Tommy was assuming that El-Sayed had a “higher order allegiance” than the Constitution. El-Sayed asked Tommy if he would “disavow any attempt to read any religious doctrine into the laws of our country.” Tommy said he wouldn’t, and El-Sayed called him out for failing to understand the Constitution.

El-Sayed’s campaign quickly turned the exchange into a video clip, which subsequently went viral. As of Monday morning, the clip has 13 million views on X alone.

Not surprisingly, later reporting revealed that Tommy is actually Thomas Teepell, the operations director for Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley and the son of Timmy Teepell, who used to work for former Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal.

The whole Q&A appears to be part of a Republican influencer campaign to try to embarrass Abdul El-Sayed. Earlier this month, The Michigan Daily reported that the conservative PAC America Next offered College Republicans $200 to boo El-Sayed at a town hall in Flint and ask provocative questions.

The Teepells are involved in a similar campaign, with Thomas’s father’s organization, Breakthrough LLC, receiving $250,000 from Jindal’s dark money organization for influencer marketing against Abdul El-Sayed. The attempt has clearly backfired, as El-Sayed turned the exchange into a positive clip for his senatorial campaign.

Tech CEO Elon Musk reportedly approached President Trump on slowing down his Starlink communications service in Ukraine earlier this week, contradicting both Musk’s statement that it was Trump’s idea and Trump’s statement that he has no idea who did it.

The Telegraph, citing four anonymous sources, reports that Musk proposed slowing down Starshield, the military-grade version of Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system, and that Trump agreed. The move hindered Ukraine’s drone defenses of Russian attacks, and came while Trump is upset with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to target Russian oil refineries and infrastructure after Trump lifted sanctions on Russian fuel. After Ukraine’s Starlink access was restricted, Russia launched a massive aerial attack on Wednesday that continued into the next morning.

Shortly afterward, Musk directed blame at the Trump administration, saying that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled” by the federal government and “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” An unnamed source told The Telegraph that after the “night of carnage” in Kyiv, Musk was reportedly scared that he would face a backlash from consumers in Europe.

“[Musk] tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it. The reality is that they were both in it,” the source said.

On Friday afternoon, Trump was asked by a reporter outside of the White House who was responsible for hindering Starlink, him or Musk. He claimed ignorance.

“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon, and from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been,” Trump said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed Friday that the Trump administration is hoping to bring a criminal conspiracy case against Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar.

Appearing on Real America’s Voice, Mullin discussed his agency’s plan to go after the Democratic lawmaker after her home in Washington was raided Monday, just three weeks before November’s midterm elections. The federal government is reportedly investigating how Omar got her citizenship after she arrived in the United States from Somalia as a child.

“If someone comes in and claims—that fills out their paperwork illegally, and they claim that they are this person, and this is their background, and then underneath that individual, a lot of other people come in … then that can be considered a RICO case,” Mullin said.

“There was a conspiracy to deceive the American government, and therefore everything else that came in with it could then for be looked at as the same case,” the secretary said.

“Good thing about something like a case like that, is when it is a RICO case, that the statue of limitations on things, they don’t, they don’t apply. A few cases they do, but in most cases they don’t,” he added.

The probe ostensibly centers on whether Omar’s father put her age as 17 rather than 18 on her citizenship application to allow her to qualify immediately for citizenship alongside his own application. In order to strip her American citizenship, the Department of Justice has to sue in federal court and prove that the person materially lied to get their status. It’s still unclear what, if any, evidence DHS has found to support this crusade against one of the president’s most outspoken critics.

Mullin claimed that DHS “worked very closely with DOJ through the whole process.” So surely, he should know about one crucial section of the DOJ manual that bars federal prosecutors from timing any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of undermining a candidate in an upcoming election. Mullin’s remarks came the same day that early voting began in Minnesota.

If the Trump administration really wants to talk about a RICO case, then maybe we should discuss how President Donald Trump is weaponizing federal agencies to go after his critics? Or if we want to just stick with a classic, we can always revisit that pesky grand jury indictment Trump and his buddies received for their efforts to overturn the results of the 2024 presidential election.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows how to get the European Union laughing—at Donald Trump.

EU leaders met in Brussels for the conclusion of the European Council summit Friday, where they closed ranks around Ukraine in its ongoing war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. During one press conference, Zelenskiy was asked if he felt Trump was making him a “scapegoat” before America’s November midterm elections.

“President Trump is facing pretty difficult midterm elections. His personal popularity is very low, diesel prices in the U.S. are very high, and the war that he started in the Middle East is not going the way he wants it,” the Sky News reporter asked. “Do you think you are being treated as a scapegoat for his own problems?”

Zelenskiy took a long pause, glanced at the papers on his podium, and then looked up, smiling. The whole room laughed.

“This is my answer,” Zelenskiy said.

It is painfully obvious to anyone paying attention that Zelenskiy is being scapegoated for Trump’s disastrous second-term record. Only two days ago, SpaceX throttled Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite internet network with no warning. On Friday, The Telegraph reported that Elon Musk went to the White House to specifically discuss the cuts ahead of time. “The reality is that they were both in it,” one source said of Musk and Trump’s plan.

Trump has also recently ramped up his public criticism of Zelenskiy and Ukraine, specifically for continuing to attack Russian oil refineries after the U.S. lifted sanctions on Russian oil in a misguided attempt to bring down diesel prices before the midterms.

Judging by the laughter in Brussels, however, Trump is not fooling most of our allies. Ukraine is no more responsible for high gas prices in the U.S. than for the empty seats at the president’s rallies or the blue momentum building in deep red states. Look in the mirror, grandpa.

Katie Zacharia’s tenure as White House press secretary only lasted five days before President Trump fired her Friday, breaking the record for shortest duration in the role.

Anthony Scaramucci, who only served for 11 days as White House communications director, had a charitable take on the firing, posting on X, “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” in response to a post about Zacharia’s dismissal.

Unlike Scaramucci, who was fired for criticizing multiple Trump administration officials in a New Yorker interview, Zacharia was fired for a disastrous first press briefing, misrepresenting her credentials as a lawyer when she hasn’t passed a bar exam, and bombing an interview with pro-Trump pundit Sean Hannity on Fox News. White House staff were even trading scathing insults of her over text messages.

Scaramucci lasted long enough to get hilariously parodied on SNL by Bill Hader in 2017, but it remains to be seen whether Zacharia will have Scarlett Johansson playing her as she had hoped. She still faces a bar complaint in the state of California that could become criminal charges, and the media is dissecting her husband Tyler’s work history for a North Korean firm. Trump’s political career has been known for train wrecks, but Zacharia might be the biggest one of all.