Abdul El-Sayed invokes JFK to dismiss 'crazy' questions over family's alleged ties to Muslim Brotherhood

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed compared himself to former President John F.

Kennedy during a Saturday "MS NOW Reports" interview with Ali Velshi, likening questions about his family's alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties to scrutiny Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith.

El-Sayed invoked Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign while arguing that questions about his family were intended to cast doubt on his allegiance to the United States.

"I also know that I tread a long history of this: when John F.

Kennedy ran for president, he was asked about whether or not his allegiance would be to the Constitution or to the pope and the Vatican…" he began.

"The Constitution guarantees me the right as I choose to pray or any of us, to pray as we choose to pray or not to pray at all," he continued.

"Nobody understands how important that document is like somebody who has their rights constantly threatened and so I will stand for that constitution.

And it's a crazy thing to assume that somehow I'd have dual loyalties as somebody who's avidly running to protect the right to choose, who's running to protect LGBTQ rights, who's running to protect religious freedom…" EL-SAYED ASKED IF HE BELIEVES AMERICA IS 'READY FOR A MUSLIM PRESIDENT' AHEAD OF SENATE RACE Ted Goodman, communications director of the Michigan GOP, pushed back on El-Sayed's comparison in a statement to Fox News Digital, arguing that the allegations involving the Democrat's relatives were fundamentally different from the religious scrutiny Kennedy faced.

"Abdul El-Sayed’s comparison of scrutiny over his Muslim Brotherhood ties to the questions JFK faced about the Vatican is a false equivalence," Goodman said.

"The Catholic Church and the Muslim Brotherhood are not analogous." "The actual evidence against Abdul El-Sayed is not hearsay based on his faith, but actual facts as reported by numerous reputable news outlets," he continued.

Velshi asked El-Sayed how he responded to questions involving the Muslim Brotherhood, terrorism and radical Islamism.

El-Sayed suggested the scrutiny was designed to raise doubts about his loyalty.

"Look, at the end of the day, the whole reason this question is being asked is to insinuate that somehow I have dual loyalties," he said.

ABDUL EL-SAYED HITS BACK AT ISRAEL QUESTIONS, SUGGESTS HIS NAME AND FAITH ARE BEHIND PRESS SCRUTINY The controversy followed reporting on social media posts uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon in which El-Sayed's half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, described her family's history with the Muslim Brotherhood .