Abdul El-Sayed is the son of Egyptian immigrants and openly Muslim. On Monday, the day before Michigan voted, a sitting Republican member of Congress went on national TV to say he couldn't honestly swear an oath to the Constitution.
"She campaigned with this guy, and she knows that this guy can't take an oath to the Constitution, honestly, because of his views and what he stands for," Claudia Tenney told Newsmax. "He's far left. He's communist. He's also an extreme Islamist."
Tenney, who represents New York's 24th District, was talking about Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens. Two days before the election, Stevens had dropped her support for El-Sayed, citing his association with commentator Hasan Piker, and endorsed his Republican opponent. Tenney said Stevens "knows what this guy is."
The Newsmax write-up gives no evidence for any of it. It doesn't name a single thing El-Sayed said or did that would stop him from swearing an oath.
The next day, Michigan voters sent him to the U.S. Senate.
What the Constitution actually says
Tenney brought up the Constitution, so let's read it. Article VI says that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." That line comes right after the part requiring officials to swear an oath to support the Constitution.
The founders put those two ideas in the same sentence. You take the oath, and nobody gets to test your religion first.
Tenney did not say "because he's Muslim." She said "because of his views." The labels she offered were "far left," "communist" and "extreme Islamist." That last one is a charge about a man's faith, aimed at a Muslim candidate, with nothing behind it in the report of her interview.
A campaign built on this
Her words fit a pattern. We documented how Republicans spent $10 million making "Sharia" a campaign word, then turned it on El-Sayed within a day of his primary win.
Other Republicans in Congress have made the same kind of charge against American Muslims. Keith Self told Newsmax "the Muslims" have "no respect for U.S. law."
It lands on real people. In the last days of the race, young Arab Americans in Michigan said the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim talk around the campaign made them feel unsafe. Common Dreams reports they pointed to Trump's comments and to innuendo from some Democrats too. "I'm more in danger of going through a racist event, a dangerous event, than I was like five years back, especially in school and public places," said Aasiya Yaasiin, a supporter of El-Sayed.
What Tenney swore to
Tenney has taken that same oath herself. She also has trouble with facts closer to home: days ago we reported that she told voters inflation was at a "50-year low" when the government's latest number said otherwise.
The man she told America couldn't honestly take the oath is now set to take it. That decision belonged to Michigan voters, and they made it.
The facts, in short
On November 2, Rep. Claudia Tenney told Newsmax that Abdul El-Sayed "can't take an oath to the Constitution, honestly" and called him "an extreme Islamist," and the report of her interview contains no evidence for either claim. The Constitution she invoked bars any religious test for federal office. El-Sayed, who is Muslim, won Michigan's Senate race the next day.
Source
Rep. Tenney to Newsmax: Stevens Knows El-Sayed Can't Take Oath, Newsmax via Yahoo.
