Ocasio-Cortez says the Muslim Brotherhood attacks on El-Sayed are plainly racist

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is standing firmly behind Abdul El-Sayed. She says the push to link the Michigan Senate candidate to the Muslim Brotherhood is plainly racist.

A stop at Culver's

A reporter caught up with the New York Democrat on Friday inside a Culver's restaurant in Michigan, where she has been out campaigning for El-Sayed. Asked whether the Brotherhood dispute had any basis in fact or grew out of racism, she said the claims fall "into racist very clearly."

She also faulted his critics for turning his painful family background into a campaign weapon.

Where the claims come from

The attacks grew out of things his half-sister wrote online years ago. In those posts she suggested their mother had been part of the group decades earlier. El-Sayed denies any connection to it.

Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that his parents separated soon after his birth and that he was raised without his mother. Nearly everyone has a relative who made choices worth questioning, she argued. Those choices should not define the rest of the family.

She went on to call him one of the most patriotic people she has ever met.

El-Sayed answers on faith

Earlier in the week El-Sayed was asked in Detroit about attacks aimed at his Muslim faith. He said those beliefs are what drive him to fight for a country where constitutional rights cover every person, whatever their identity, their partner or their religion.

Curds on the menu

On a lighter note the congresswoman said this was her very first trip to Culver's. She raved about the burgers along with the cheese curds and joked that the meal had changed her life.