WASHINGTON — Republican Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers would not give yes or no responses to several questions during a contentious interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program that aired Sunday, Oct. 25.

Journalist Kristen Welker asked Rogers of White Lake Township if he agreed with a social media post from President Donald Trump that Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed is a “Muslim Brotherhood jihadist who hates Jews and Blacks and AMERICANS.”

“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,” Rogers said, referring to an Islamic group recognized as a terrorist organization in several countries.

The former seven-term congressman has repeatedly attempted to tie El-Sayed to the group, despite multiple denials from the Democratic candidate. El-Sayed, a former Wayne County public health official who resides in Ann Arbor, said he “disavows” the Muslim Brotherhood during a viral exchange with a GOP activist earlier this month.

Welker also asked Rogers about his alignment with Trump, tariffs and whether he considers himself a “MAGA” Republican. The interview took place ahead of a Trump campaign rally later in the day in Port Huron, where Rogers spoke on stage with Trump.

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was interviewed on the program after Rogers, said GOP candidates like him were trying to “change the conversation” amid a potentially difficult electoral environment for Republicans across the country.

“The last thing they want to talk about is how they make people’s lives better because they don’t have a plan,” Whitmer said. “They are so tied with the Trump administration, tariffs, and war with Iran, and so they’re not talking about the things that really matter to voters.”

Whitmer supported El-Sayed’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham, in the Democratic primary earlier this year but said Sunday that it is “important we support the Democratic ticket.”

El-Sayed, shortly after the program aired in some media markets, posted a video online depicting Rogers as a close ally of Trump. The video is set to the song “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams.

Technical difficulties for Rogers on Trump question

Rogers, asked if a vote for him was a vote for the “Trump agenda,” said he was having trouble hearing Welker.

“I’m apologizing. I’m having some difficulty in my earpiece. But is a vote for you — I’m not sure. I tell you what a vote for me is: It’s a great day for the state of Michigan,” Rogers said.

That was the only moment during the interview when Rogers said he was experiencing technical difficulties.

He continued his response: “For the last eight years, we’ve had Democrats control our state, both the U.S. Senate seats and Lansing, Michigan. We have the highest utility rates in the Midwest. We have the highest auto insurance rates in the country.

“We have — our education has gone down all the way to 46th in the country. Two-thirds of our fourth graders can’t read in the fourth-grade level, and if you can’t read in the fourth-grade level, you have a 70 percent chance of going to prison or being on welfare.

“So I present solutions for all of that. And if you’re going to have the president of the United States of one party for the next two years, why not send somebody back that can work with the state, excuse me, work with the president to get some of these things fixed?

“And the things that we disagree with on some of the Canadian tariffs, on wrapping up the Iran war, better to have somebody that can work to that conclusion than just go back to poke them in the eye and increase our costs all across the state with their Green New Deal that they’re pushing with Bernie Sanders and AOC and others coming right here in the state.”

Rogers does not commit to anti-tariff votes

After Rogers mentioned tariffs, Welker asked him if he would vote as a member of the Senate to repeal some of Trump’s tariffs. Rogers did not provide a yes or no answer.

“The best way to do this is walk in and say, ‘Can we work this out?'” he responded. “And I’ll give you a great example (of) how I’ve done that. I’m not even in office yet. I’ve been trying to get Canadian trash from coming across our border and dumping in our landfills for over a decade.”

He went on to celebrate new Trump tariffs on waste coming from Ontario into Michigan. The White House imposed a 50% tariff on such waste on Oct. 23, though it is unclear that import taxes would solve that issue. If an item has little or no assessed value, the tax assessed on the item would also be minimal.

“You know, the automobile part portion of these Canadian tariffs worries me a little bit,” Rogers said. “And we’re going to go back and work through those issues to get some relief to make sure that it’s good for Michigan, not bad for Michigan.”

Trump has threatened 50% tariffs on automotive products coming from Canada, a policy that many in the industry say would cripple the automotive supply chain in North America.

Rogers went on to applaud some of Trump’s existing tariffs, which he credited for causing General Motors Co. to shift production of the Chevrolet Silverado from Mexico to Michigan next year. “There’s some good, and there’s some things we have to work on,” the GOP candidate said.

Heated exchanges over ‘MAGA’ label, Muslim Brotherhood

Rogers and Welker sparred over unfounded claims that El-Sayed supports the Muslim Brotherhood.

“There’s a reason he (is) getting money from groups that support the Muslim Brotherhood, money from groups that support Hamas and Hezbollah. That’s a thinking issue. I wore the uniform in 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, and that has a consequence,” Rogers said.

Welker responded by pointing out that El-Sayed has “denied and denounced the Muslim Brotherhood and denied any ties to them.”

She also brought up a quote from Rogers in 2012, when he was a member of Congress, suggesting that the United States would need to work with some “moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals” after the Egyptian revolution that ousted longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

The Republican explained that he, in his capacity as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was trying to “limit violence in the region.” He also called El-Sayed a liar and accused Welker of trying to defend him.

Rogers went on to say that he has “never called (El-Sayed) a terrorist,” though he did not say whether he agrees with Trump using such language to describe his opponent.

To conclude the interview, Welker asked Rogers if he considered himself a “MAGA” Republican — a political label signaling alignment with Trump and his Make America Great Again slogan.

“Listen, I’m going to tell you something. This is — I get you guys on the national press, but this is a little bit disgusting to me,” Rogers said.

He went on to describe Lon Johnson, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, who publicly announced that he will not vote for El-Sayed.

Pressed again to answer the question, Rogers again did not provide a yes or no answer.

“I’m going to go right back through this. There is a reason we have support from people in Detroit and Flint and Pontiac because we’re there talking about issues, talking about their needs and future,” he said.

“And this guy is too extreme for them.”

gschwab@detroitnews.com

@GrantSchwab

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Rogers skirts tariff, MAGA questions on ‘Meet the Press’

Reporting by Grant Schwab, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

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