{"id":77036,"date":"2026-08-05T18:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/dems-in-the-hot-seat-for-skipping-crucial-hearing-on-radical-group-hiding-in-us-embarrassment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:00:57","slug":"dems-in-the-hot-seat-for-skipping-crucial-hearing-on-radical-group-hiding-in-us-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/dems-in-the-hot-seat-for-skipping-crucial-hearing-on-radical-group-hiding-in-us-embarrassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems in the hot seat for skipping crucial hearing on radical group hiding in US: ‘Embarrassment’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic lawmakers were missing during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, skipping a hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s alleged network inside the United States and drawing a blistering rebuke from Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a>, R-Texas.<\/p>\n

“You may notice that there are empty chairs on the Democrat side of the dais,” Cruz said as he opened the hearing<\/a> by pointing out every Democratic member of the subcommittee refused to attend. “The American people should ask themselves why not a single member of the minority decided that a hearing on terrorism was worth their time? It is an embarrassment.”<\/p>\n

Cruz tied the Democrats\u2019 boycott to Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s primary victory, arguing the timing helped explain why no Democratic members<\/a> attended. Cruz accused the party of embracing a candidate who had campaigned alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cruz cited Piker\u2019s past statement that “America deserved 9\/11” and asked the witnesses what El-Sayed\u2019s rise said about the direction of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

HASAN PIKER UNLOADS ON ‘ISLAMOPHOBIC PIECES OF S—‘ DEMOCRATS AS EL-SAYED FACES PARTY UNITY TEST<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Abdul El-Sayed, the son-in-law of a leading member of several Brotherhood groups, won Michigan\u2019s Democrat primary for U.S. Senate. Perfect timing for this hearing. Probably explains why no Democrats are here, and none intend to attend,” Cruz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Because their campaign is now openly embracing terrorist organizations waging war on America.”<\/p>\n

The five Democratic members of the subcommittee \u2014 senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Alex Padilla of California and Peter Welch of Vermont \u2014 announced beforehand that they would not attend. In a joint statement, the senators accused Cruz of staging a “political creepshow” that scapegoated Muslim Americans.<\/p>\n

“Scapegoating Muslims may be a Texas Republican strategist\u2019s idea of \u2018solid gold\u2019 to whip up their voters, but Democrats have no intention of indulging this political creepshow, particularly after the recent violence targeting places of faith,” they said. “Our focus is the costs families face thanks to rampant, non-stop Trump corruption.”<\/p>\n

Blumenthal separately told reporters Wednesday that Democrats refused to attend because the hearing “could well be used as an anti-Muslim, Islamophobia kind of show trial.”<\/p>\n

MICHIGAN SENATE RACE: EL-SAYED\u2019S TIES TO EXTREMIST FUEL ANTISEMITISM CONCERNS AMONG JEWISH VOTERS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Connecticut Democrat added that he planned to meet with members of the Muslim community who shared concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood, “which appears to be a terrorist organization,” while advocating for “tolerance and inclusion.”<\/p>\n

The offices of Whitehouse and Welch referred Fox News Digital to the joint statement when asked why the senators chose to boycott rather than attend and challenge the witnesses directly. The offices of Hirono and Padilla had not responded by publication time.<\/p>\n

Cruz and the hearing\u2019s witnesses rejected the Democrats\u2019 characterization of the proceeding as an attack on Muslims generally.<\/p>\n

Lara Burns, a retired FBI special agent who helped lead a terrorism-financing investigation<\/a> into what was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation, warned that Americans should not disregard evidence because it is politically controversial.<\/p>\n

“For decades, narratives have been intentionally seeded into public discourse that portray terrorist organizations as resistance movements,” Burns testified before arguing Americans cannot “ignore evidence introduced in federal court simply because that evidence is politically uncomfortable.”<\/p>\n

“The history of this network is not in question,” she added. “It was made public decades ago, but few paid attention. Now is the time to pay attention and understand the facts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic lawmakers were missing during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, skipping a hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s alleged network inside the United States and drawing a blistering rebuke from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “You may notice that there are empty chairs on the Democrat side of the dais,” Cruz said as he opened the hearing … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}