“The Muslim Brotherhood may well be behind this, but are the people protesting because the Muslim Brotherhood was ejected, or because food and fuel costs have gone up. It seems like I’m hearing both, but never from the same source.”
—The MB is already well-trained in these endeavors. It looks like they used their claim, and their claim alone, that the elections were “rigged” as an excuse to start a mass revolt. Then they gathered the already hungry, disenchanted young people to join them.
And notice: there are no statements from the US here about examining whether there really were any problems with the Egyptian election. The MB makes this claim, starts a riot...and then we give them exactly what they want without challenge.
It seems like if the voters truly rejected them, then they wouldn't have enough support to be able to start a mass revolt.