'The View' co-hosts defend El-Sayed comparing himself to JFK over Muslim Brotherhood scrutiny

"The View" co-hosts defended Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over his comparison of questions about his family's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood to scrutiny former President John F. Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith.

El-Sayed made the comparison during an "MS NOW Reports" interview on Saturday, likening questions about his family's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood to scrutiny Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg highlighted an incident at a recent town hall when El-Sayed was asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed did so, but objected to the question, saying the audience member was "implicitly assuming that Ill have dual loyalties."

"I liked what he said. He compared the question he received to John F. Kennedy's question because John F. Kennedy, as you know, was a Catholic, and in the days he was running that was a huge deal and people wanted to know Are you going to listen to the Pope? Are you going to listen to the people?" Goldberg said.

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"Yeah, because he was the first Catholic president," co-host Sunny Hostin agreed. "And I loved that comparison because, when John F. Kennedy was asked, he said, I am not running to be a Catholic president, I'm running to be president who happens to be Catholic. And candidate El-Sayed said the same thing. I am running to be a senator who happens to be Muslim."

"I think he does politics extremely well," she continued. "And there has been these constant Islamophobic — these Islamophobic comments around his candidacy. Trump called him a jihadist. I mean, this is just, I think it's out of line. I think it's out of pocket for our country to be a country where all religions aren't welcome. I think that it's really despicable the way he's been treated."

Concerns about El-Sayed's family's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood emerged after social media posts uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon showed El-Sayed's half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, described her family's .

In one 2012 post, Abdelhadi described a conversation with her and El-Sayed's mother, Fatten Elkomy, about her involvement with the organization during college in Egypt, saying, "Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect."

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Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted how quickly El-Sayed disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, but said she was still troubled by his response to an antisemitic terror attack in Michigan, arguing that such concerns cannot be disregarded as "Islamophobic." She also pointed to his past campaigning with far-left streamer Hasan Piker.

Fellow co-host Sara Haines argued, "The comparison to JFK isn't quite an equitable comparison, because when you question his loyalty based on his Catholicism, that's different than asking a question about reported ties to a terrorist organization."

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