Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, is facing renewed criticism online after posting a message marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
“They didn’t just attack America that day they attacked the idea of America,” El-Sayed wrote on his X account. “The notion of a nation brought together by ideals — a place where freedom and commitment to justice bind us, even if, at times, we struggle to fully realize it. Today on 9/11 we remember the lives that were taken from us in a terrible act of terrorism.”
The post quickly drew responses from conservative commentators and Republican officials who pointed to El-Sayed’s association with Hasan Piker, a progressive streamer who has previously said the United States “deserved 9/11.”
The account Libs of TikTok wrote, “Shut up, you FRAUD.” Steve Guest, a former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted a photo of Piker and El-Sayed together with the caption “This you?” alongside another Piker quote: “I hate America… at least I say it with my f—ing chest.”
GOP consultant Ryan Girdusky wrote that El-Sayed was “campaigning with a guy who said we deserved 9/11,” calling the candidate’s dishonesty “brazen.” National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Joanna Rodriguez posted, “You’re a disgrace. You remain unwilling to disavow your chief spokesman who said ‘America deserved 9/11.’ You belittled the American lives lost year after year while giving excuses and showing sympathy for terrorists.”
Joey Mannarino, co-founder of the right-wing Overton Institute, questioned El-Sayed’s standing in the race, writing, “How in God’s name is Abdul El-Sayed even close to winning this race? The man campaigns with people who say America deserved 9/11. He is a radical Islamist extremist if I’ve ever seen one. And this is who Michigan wants to put in the Senate?”
El-Sayed has previously distanced himself from some of Piker’s remarks. After Piker called Israel a “Jewish ISIS,” El-Sayed said, “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokesperson,” adding that his campaign would keep its focus on “gas, groceries, good schools and healthcare” rather than “a Twitch streamer.”
Chuck Ross, an investigative reporter with the Washington Free Beacon, noted that this year’s message differed from El-Sayed’s past 9/11 statements, which have typically also referenced the wars that followed the attacks. “El-Sayed, reading off a teleprompter, gives a statement about 9/11. This time he sticks to just 9/11 and not the ‘War on Terror’ aftermath that he usually mentions in his 9/11 anniversary posts,” Ross wrote.
In October 2023, as Israel prepared a military response in Gaza, El-Sayed had invoked the War on Terror directly, writing, “The President’s visit to Israel as it plans a major escalation & invasion of Gaza is already being held up as an endorsement of the violence being unleashed on innocent Palestinians. I can’t help but hear echoes of 9/11. When do we learn that more violence doesn’t fix violence?”
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment on why he has not more directly disavowed Piker.
