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By Joe Edwards
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Undercover footage obtained by right-leaning online publication The Midwesterner appears to show a volunteer involved in Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign calling Americans “idiots” and saying he might support some of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities.
The footage shows a man it identified as T.J. Wolfgram addressing accusations promoted by President Donald Trump that El-Sayed has links to the Muslim Brotherhood. The outlet said that Wolfgram works as the conservative and independent outreach captain for El-Sayed's campaign.
Newsweek has learned that the person depicted was a volunteer captain and was not a paid campaign staffer, and that the El-Sayed campaign has hundreds of volunteer captains engaging with various communities. Newsweek was unable to independently verify The Midwesterner’s more specific description of Wolfgram as the campaign’s conservative and independent outreach captain.
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The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928. Some governments have designated the organization or certain branches as terrorist groups.
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In January, the State Department announced that the U.S. had imposed terrorist designations against the Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood has also received a terrorist designation. The U.S. has not designated the entire Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
“The Muslim Brotherhood was a revolution in Egypt that we were—we as the United States—were either neutral on or even supportive of at the time,” the man identified as Wolfgram says.
“And now it’s like, ‘Oh, in 1999, Abdul’s mom, who did not raise him because he grew up with his father and stepmom, she worked for a company that transferred $60,000 to the Muslim Brotherhood in 19’—it’s like, it’s so ridiculous.”
The person capturing the footage then says: “But my thing is, he’s a Muslim…and he’s anti-colonialist, I’m assuming. Why wouldn’t you support revolutionary movements for your people? I’m not offended by it.”
Wolfgram responds: “It’s because Americans are idiots."
The person filming then suggests that the Muslim Brotherhood and similar organizations were seeking to protect their own people and questioned why El-Sayed would not support them.
Wolfgram then says: “I don’t have any issue with the Muslim Brotherhood. And if I knew more about it, I might support some of what they do. I mean granted, there’s gonna be cultural differences, so there’s gonna be things about the way they go about what they do that I don’t agree with.”
He later adds: “Self-determination includes judgment calls that we don’t agree with. They may choose to treat women in ways that we don’t agree with. And I encourage us to contribute individual money toward NGOs working to combat that or a f****** paramilitary organization—I don’t really care, but…the collective choice we make as a government should not be, as a default, to try and tell other people how to live."
Neither The Midwesterner nor The Daily Wire, which published additional footage, identified the undercover operative.
Posts and Event Listings Indicate Campaign Role
Event listings on the campaign’s website identify a person named T.J. Wolfgram as the lead for a campaign-related event, while a social media account bearing that name indicates that he was involved with the campaign.
Newsweek contacted El-Sayed’s campaign and an account believed to be Wolfgram's for comment.
An October 22 Facebook comment by an account under the name “T.J. Wolfgram” shows someone who resembles the man in The Midwesterner’s footage wearing an “Abdul for Senate” vest and carrying a campaign sign. “I’m super involved in the volunteer leadership,” the post reads.
In a September post, the account said they would be tabling for Abdul El-Sayed for Senate at a Rank MI Vote Michigan Democracy Fair and Rally in Plymouth.
On October 12, the account shared a link to an official campaign event page for a “Grosse Pointe Canvass with T.J.” The page invites people to “join T.J.” to receive campaign literature and canvassing assignments, connect to Slack and begin canvassing together.
A “T.J. Wolfgram” is listed on the campaign’s website as the lead for a separate interfaith community event in August.
Muslim Brotherhood Emerges as Campaign Issue
El-Sayed's opponents—including Republican former Representative Mike Rogers and Trump—have claimed during the campaign that the Democrat has ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. In particular, El-Sayed has faced questions over a resurfaced 2012 post from his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, in which she discussed speaking to her mother “about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early '70s while she was in college.”
El-Sayed has repeatedly denied any personal or family ties to the organization and has said he was not raised by his mother. If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order directing officials to evaluate whether certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.
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