Excerpt:
An ongoing controversy between Patrick Colbeck and Abdul El-Sayed bubbled to the forefront at the gubernatorial debate on Mackinac Island Thursday when the Republican hopeful accused El-Sayed of playing “the race card.”
Colbeck took flack from El-Sayed and his supporters after he alleged El-Sayed, a Democrat, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and supports Sharia law. The comments are unsubstantiated and were first reported on by Buzzfeed News.
In response to a question about whether Colbeck was playing into bigotry by doubling down on those comments, Colbeck said El-Sayed was misconstruing what he said.
“I think Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is going off and playing a religion card, and he’s playing a race card when all I did was highlight his associate with an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said.