Michele Bachmann, the former Minnesota congresswoman, told “Washington Watch” she is keeping an eye on the U.S. House after it flipped last week to a Democrat majority. That political shift matters, she said, because the House is the source of funding and funding bills.
“They deal with funding issues on foreign policy, on war, and they can zero out funding is they so choose,” she warned.
Reacting to the midterm election results, Bachmann said she is especially concerned about Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect from Michigan.
El-Sayed won election Nov. 3 in a 52%-45% win over Republican candidate Mike Rogers.
When El-Sayed makes history in January as the first Muslim American in the U.S. Senate, Bachmann pointed out the freshman Muslim senator will have access to classified information on a Senate committee.
She pointed out El-Sayed’s family is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is recognized by the State Department as a terrorist-sponsoring Islamist organization.
“This is not when Republicans should go weak-kneed. This is not when they should succumb to political correctness,” she urged. “This is a nation's national security that's at risk, and they need to take this seriously.”
If any Republican senators publicly question El-Sayed’s loyalty, they surely know what’s coming. During the Senate race, El-Sayed accused his critics of “racism” and “Islamophobia” when his was questioned about Israel’s right to exist and his defense of Hamas.
“I’m not going to play this gotcha game,” El-Sayed told CNN, when he was asked three times but never answered.
On the same “Washington Watch” program, show host Tony Perkins also asked church pastor Gary Hamrick to react to President Trump’s “60 Minutes” comments regarding Israel. In that interview, which focused on GOP losses on Election Day, the president said a “dislike” for Israel is one of the reasons Republicans lost to Democrats in the midterms.
Reacting to that comment, Hamrick called it “discouraging” to hear President Trump say that after he has been openly supportive of Israel.
“This, to me, looks like he's backpedaling,” Hamrick observed. “He's concerned about what some polls say, or what some people say, and I think he's pivoting. It concerns me.”
