On Meet the Press, Welker Reads Rogers His 2012 Reuters Quote on Moderate Muslim Brotherhood Individuals; He Calls It Out of Context and Cites Israel-Egypt Intelligence Ties

On NBC’s Meet the Press (transcript dated October 25, 2026), the moderator asked Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan, whether he agreed with President Trump’s overnight post about Abdul El-Sayed. Rogers did not answer yes or no. He said El-Sayed wrote a letter that he described this way: “When you write a letter, supporting of Morsi in 2012 and 2013 saying you should”

The moderator then put on screen Rogers’s own words from a 2012 Reuters story, in which Reuters identified him as the “Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee”. The story, as syndicated by DefenceWeb, quotes him: “There was a whole host of al Qaeda leadership that had been Muslim Brotherhood that graduated to al Qaeda” and then “Do I think there are moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals we are going to have to reach out to and talk to? Yes. But we are going to have to watch it carefully” (the Reuters original blocks automated fetches; the syndicated copy is what was read, and it presents these as Rogers’s statements, not as an interview). The moderator read only the second quote on air.

The moderator asked: “Do you acknowledge that at the time, in 2012, you were willing to work with some moderate members, as you said, of the Muslim Brotherhood?” The moderator had just said El-Sayed “he joined that letter which supported the protesters against Egypt’s dictator, not the Muslim Brotherhood as a group”.

Rogers’s reply began: “that is so much out of context”. He went on: “we had relationships where Israel and Egypt had relationships in their intelligence services that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to undo”, and said that as chairman he said “We’re going to have to find a way to try to not sever that relationship”. The transcript records no direct yes or no to the moderator’s question. Ryan Grim’s post on X summarizing the exchange says Rogers “acknowledges” he was willing to work with the Brotherhood; the transcript shows an explanation of the 2012 remark rather than a stated acknowledgment.

Rogers, on whether El-Sayed denounced the Brotherhood: “Nope, he has not. He dismissed the question”.

The letter itself: 2012-11-25–egyptian-american-statement-backing-morsi-decrees-and-urging-purge-of-media-and-police-carries-el-sayed-name. Context: 2026-10-21–rogers-posts-el-sayed-radical-ideology-threat-to-national-security-and-repeats-risk-line-in-final-debate, 2026-10-25–trump-calls-el-sayed-jihadist-muslim-brotherhood-member-port-huron-rally-for-rogers.