Looks like Team Obama knows how to shoot back, as Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota comes pretty close to accusing Hillary Clinton of anti-Muslim bigotry.

Ellison’s comments came two days after the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes ran a segment last Sunday in which a male voter explained how he was influenced by the fallacious Muslim smear campaign against Obama. Later in the show, Clinton was asked if she believed the rumors. “Of course not,” said the New York Democrat. “I mean, that’s — you know, there is no basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn’t any reason to doubt that.” Asked by correspondent Steve Kroft whether she was taking Obama at his word or personally believed he was not a Muslim, Clinton expanded on her answer: “No. No. Why would I? … There is nothing to base that on, as far as I know.” For Ellison, the qualifiers in both Clinton statements demonstrated at least a partial attempt to further seed voter doubts. While he rejected the idea that Clinton campaign was behind the smear, he wasn’t expecting the Clinton camp to thoroughly denounce it either. “I think that Barack Obama’ s Democratic opponents will say and do anything to try and win,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much doubt of that. And so, I think that pretty much would explain [Clinton’s] comments.”

Ellison, in an interview with The Huffington Post, said the Clinton camp was “opportunistically trying to reap the benefit” of voter concerns about Obama’s religious beliefs.