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Trump attacks El-Sayed at Port Huron rally as Michigan becomes midterm battleground
A day after Barack Obama rallied Democrats in Detroit, the president told a crowd in Port Huron he had come to stop the Democratic Senate nominee and backed Mike Rogers and John James.
Key points
- Trump held the first presidential visit ever to Port Huron and St Clair County on Sunday.
- He called Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed a "jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member".
- Michigan's Democratic chair said Republicans were ready to "rubber stamp Trump's toxic agenda".
President Donald Trump took his midterm campaign to Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, telling supporters he had come to keep the Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed out of Washington, nine days before the 3 November elections.
“I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” Trump said at McMorran Place arena, in what city officials said was the first visit by a president to Port Huron or St Clair County.
He praised the Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers as “one of the most respected men in Washington” and backed John James, the party’s candidate for governor, saying James would “fight for jobs” and “lower prices”. Michigan, Trump told the crowd, was built by “American patriots who shed their blood, sweat and tears.”
At the top of Michigan’s ballot, El-Sayed faces Rogers for the Senate, and Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for governor, faces James. In-person early voting opened in the state on Saturday.
Democrats answered quickly. Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said Rogers, James and Michigan Republicans were “fully endorsing and ready to rubber stamp Trump’s toxic agenda”.
Trump’s visit came a day after former president Barack Obama campaigned in Detroit for El-Sayed and Benson, and earlier in Cleveland for Sherrod Brown in Ohio. “Abdul shares my values,” Obama said, calling the election “our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration”. He also accused Trump of starting “an unnecessary war that nobody asked for” with Iran.