At a town hall, Abdul El-Sayed tells a questioner, Tommy, that the question assumes a Muslim would hold an allegiance other than to the Constitution. He points out that John F. Kennedy, running as the first possible Catholic president, was asked about allegiance to the Pope, and answered that he was running to be president and happened to be Catholic.
The receipt
- Who
- Abdul El-Sayed
- Where
- other: town hall event, Michigan Senate campaign
- Original footage
- USA TODAY · watch the full video from this moment
- Length
- 53 seconds, unedited within the cut
- Plays
- 121 on Instagram
Read the transcript
And now you assume Tommy that because I am Muslim that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution. That's your assumption. That's implicit in the question. And what's interesting to me is that this is not the first time people have asked those kinds of questions. Because do you know who John F. Kennedy is? Do you Do you know what he was asked as the first possible Catholic president of the United States? What did they ask him? You don't remember? You should read history. When he ran for president, he was asked whether or not he was going to have allegiance to the Pope at the Vatican because of course he's Catholic. And his answer famously was that he was not running to be a Catholic president, he who's running to be president and happened to be captain. Yeah!
Machine transcript of the clip's audio; names are checked, small words may differ.