Caro Town Hall: 'Tommy' Asks El-Sayed to Disavow the Muslim Brotherhood; Questioner Is Hawley's Former Operations Director Thomas Teepell

On October 17th, at an Abdul El-Sayed town hall in Caro, Michigan, an attender who gave his name only as “Tommy” shouted from the crowd, asking whether El-Sayed would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed said he would, then asked the man why he was asking. The exchange went viral that night.

The Handbasket was the first outlet to identify Tommy as Thomas Teepell. The Guardian’s account of the staff records has him joining Hawley’s office as an intern and rising to operations director before leaving in February. The Senate’s payroll report for October 2025 to March 2026 lists Thomas Francis Teepell in Hawley’s office as “DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS TO JAN. 30”. The Guardian also identifies him as the son of the Republican strategist Timmy Teepell, a longtime adviser to Hawley and the former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.

No document links Thomas Teepell’s attendance to America Next, to its anti-El-Sayed spending, or to the College Republicans offer for the Flint town hall. The Handbasket asked America Next whether they hired and/or paid the younger Teepell and had yet to hear back when it published.