Video of Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed recounting an incident in which he smashed a bottle in a liquor store has surfaced online, and his own past comments about Arab-American business owners add a sharper angle to the story.
Footage and audio clips of Abdul El-Sayed telling this story have spread across social platforms, drawing fresh scrutiny to the Democratic candidate’s temperament and judgment. He told the tale on the Intellectually Petty Radio podcast, recounting an episode from his early days as Detroit’s health director. The episode centers on a confrontation at a gas station or liquor store and escalates into property destruction.
In his telling, El-Sayed described the shopkeeper and a short exchange that led to his reaction. “When I was first year as health director, I walked into a gas station/liquor store,” the candidate said. “… And I got this, this business owner, Arab guy who’s got this big thick beard, right? … I was buying Gatorade or something and I bring it to them, to the teller to, to pay for it. And, and he says, oh, you know, ‘are you Muslim?’
I said, ‘yeah.’ He said, ‘well, your beard is too short.’ I was like, ‘okay, you’re gonna judge me? Okay, give me a second, I forgot something.’ So I walk back, I get a fifth of vodka, and I put it on the counter. He’s like, ‘hey, you can’t buy that.’ I was like, ‘you’re right, and you can’t sell it.’ So I smashed it on the ground and walked out.
That response—smashing a bottle because a clerk questioned his faith or appearance—is extreme and shocking coming from someone who seeks federal office. From a Republican perspective, it’s not just about the moment; it’s about the judgment such episodes reveal. Voters want public servants who keep cool under pressure, not candidates who boast about damaging private property when offended.
There’s also the media angle. Conservative outlets and critics note that stories like this can be handled differently depending on which side is involved, and they argue the mainstream press tends to give Democrats more benefit of the doubt. The episode raises the familiar question of unequal coverage and whether behavior by a left-leaning candidate would get the same scrutiny if a Republican did the same.
This is not the only time El-Sayed has commented critically about Arab-American business owners in Detroit, and those earlier remarks complicate the narrative. In a 2016 interview after he became Detroit’s health director, he spoke about community responsibility and criticized certain business practices he saw as harmful to neighborhoods. The remarks then and the story now sit together uncomfortably for a candidate who frames himself as a unifier.
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“I’m a human first and foremost, and an American second,” he said. “And fundamentally, as humans and Americans, we have a responsibility to equity. That’s the responsibility I serve every day.” “A number of folks don’t treat the community with respect and dignity,” he said. “Part of my being here is to say, ‘There are many of us. There’s not one group of Arab Americans. Not all of us own liquor stores that are contributing to the social ills of the neighborhood.’”
El-Sayed urged Arab Americans to engage with neighborhoods beyond just making profits, saying business owners should be part of the fabric of the community. That message can be valid, but critics see a disconnect when that same person describes smashing a bottle over perceived slights. It opens him to charges of hypocrisy and poor impulse control from opponents.
He also warned against a posture of perpetual victimhood, a line that now reads differently in light of the liquor-store episode. “The moment you point the finger and you’re like, ‘I am the victim here’, you have three others pointing back at you.” Those words are his, and for many observers they underline the tension between his public rhetoric and the incident he later recounted.
