Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, faced a wave of online criticism this week 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 X. “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 message quickly drew scrutiny, not for its content alone, but for who was reading it. Critics online pointed to El-Sayed’s public friendship with Hasan Piker, the progressive streamer who has repeatedly said, in comments that went viral, that the United States “deserved 9/11.”
The conservative account Libs of TikTok responded Friday with a blunt post: “Shut up, you FRAUD.” Steve Guest, a political commentator and former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted a photo of El-Sayed standing with Piker alongside another Piker quote: “I hate America… at least I say it with my f—ing chest.” Guest’s caption asked simply, “This you?”
GOP consultant Ryan Girdusky wrote that El-Sayed was “campaigning with a guy who said we deserved 9/11,” adding that “his brazen dishonesty makes him all the bigger piece of s—.” 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.”
Not all of the pushback focused on Piker. Chuck Ross, an investigative reporter with The Washington Free Beacon, noted a shift in how El-Sayed framed the anniversary this time around. “El-Sayed, reading off a teleprompter, gives a statement about 9/11,” Ross wrote. “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.”
That distinction matters because El-Sayed has, in the past, invoked the war on terror as a cautionary example of military overreach. In October 2023, as Israel prepared its response in Gaza, El-Sayed wrote: “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 has previously sought to put distance between himself and some of Piker’s remarks. After Piker referred to Israel as a “Jewish ISIS,” El-Sayed said: “But I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokesperson. And while politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we’re going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools and healthcare. Because that’s what Michiganders keep asking about.”
Joey Mannarino, co-founder of the right-leaning Overton Institute, questioned El-Sayed’s standing in the Senate race altogether. “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?” Mannarino wrote.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment on why he has not more forcefully disavowed Piker.
