Summary
- Candidates’ relatives have been a major source of campaign craziness this election season.
- From one candidate denying she married her brothers to a mother labeling her candidate daughter a liar, the past week has been entertaining.
- But ultimately the election is about more than candidates’ family members.
‘Tis the season for pumpkin spice, candy corn, and election tomfoolery. With only days to go before the midterms, the political world has turned the outrageous up to 11, with seemingly each hour bringing Monty Pythonesque absurdity.
You can say it’s been relatively crazy.
Cue Sly and the Family Stone’s “Family Affair.”
After years of rumors and countless late-night jokes, Rep. Ilhan Omar was asked directly by MS NOW’s Chris Hayes whether she is in any way related to her ex-husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
Her response: “Not to my knowledge.”
Snakes like Dr. Anthony Fauci and former FBI Director James Comey can get away with “not to my knowledge” or “not that I can recall” pertaining to actions they took in office to avoid definitive yes or nos that would get them in trouble either way. But it’s a different bowl of candy corn when asked if you married your brother.
That’s one you can’t not know. “I dunno. Maybe I said ‘I do’ thinking I was being asked if I wanted a piece of cake? Signed a piece of paper thinking it was an autograph? All men look the same to me?”
Even telling Hayes, “Hey, baby. Love is Love,” would have been better than “Not to my knowledge.”
Abdul El-Sayed’s Sis Dished on Family Connections to Muslim Brotherhood
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed may not have married his sister, but opponent Mike Rogers made sure in Wednesday night’s debate to draw attention to her.
El-Sayed keeps denying his family has any connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, even though his sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, boasted on social media about how their mother “has long been involved” with the group—elements of which are designated terrorist organizations—and was an activist with the Brotherhood back in the 1970s.
Abdelhadi also posted that their “family has long been MB.” And she didn’t mean “Michigan Boosters.”
That El-Sayed refuses to condemn Hamas, defended an attack on a Jewish synagogue as “hurt people hurt people,” and campaigns with virulent antisemite Hasan Piker makes his angry denials disingenuous. And, frankly, meaningless.
It’s like saying your family wasn’t involved with the Klan while you ride around in a white robe burning crosses.
On the plus side, it also makes him a perfect husband number four for Omar.
Oh, well. At least his mother isn’t blowing up his campaign. Save that work for the biological mother of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton.
Acton’s Mom Shreds Her as a ‘Liar’ in Ad
There’s an old line from a blues song, “Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin’ too.”
Amy Acton’s mother insists in a new campaign ad that she loves her daughter, but that she is a perpetual “liar,” who has lied about her childhood and has serious issues. “She can’t help you if she can’t help herself,” Donna Arthur declares.
No jive.
The ad is almost as brutal as an ISIS beheading video. And certainly, a low blow. The two have been estranged since age 12 when dear ol’ ma stuck with Acton’s stepfather even after it was alleged he had sexually abused her.
Still, her opponent Vivek Ramasamy makes no apologies for the ad, and neither did his friend Vice President JD Vance, who cited all the awful and untrue things Acton has said about the entrepreneur and his family.
Acton responded by asking Vance and President Donald Trump to consider the “facts” before defending the ad. Considering Trump is regularly called a rapist and pedophile by the media and Democratic politicians, why should he sweat Acton’s own mamma calling her names?
Her own mamma!
Besides, for years, Acton’s party has used Trump’s estranged niece Mary like a bullwhip against the president.
And now, Democrats are using a corpse.
Democrats Pull a Senator Out of the Closet … and the Grave
We understand why Democrats have an affinity for dead voters. But attacking a dead Republican senator? Kinda macabre, even for the Halloween season.
Last week, the Young Turks put out a 33-minute documentary accusing the late South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, brother of current candidate Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, of being gay and hiring male escorts.
First off, if you think it’s blockbuster news that Graham might have been gay, you’re a few legislators short of a quorum. This rumor has existed for decades.
But here’s what I don’t get. The same people aghast at the story are the same people happy with grooming kids, telling them it’s awesome to be gay, and telling the rest of us that ‘sex work’ is legitimate work.
So what’s the problem?
Besides, it was a dumb political move. First, it triggers the never helpful “Oh. Come. On. Please,” reaction. Second, it means some Democrat is going to be outed for some heinous thing or another. That’s the way Washington works. You swap scandals like Cold War spies.
Third, it turns a race about an inexperienced candidate, Darline Nordone, into a remembrance of the popular champion of South Carolina, Lindsay Graham.
Fourth, they messed with Sen. Nordone’s brother. And as many of us know, sisters turn all Tony Soprano when someone messes with their brothers.
Their Families vs. Our Families
Thankfully, we have only eight more days of this election, and for all this talk of candidates and their mothers, sisters, brothers—brothers who may have also been husbands—the truth of the matter is that next Tuesday isn’t about their families.
It’s about ours.
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