Leading candidates for Senate in Michigan of both parties are taking diverging paths when it comes to their stances on terrorism at home and abroad. Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) thrust the issue into the spotlight when rallied alongside Hasan Piker, an anti-American activists who claimed that “America deserved 9/11.”
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), the GOP’s likely nominee to succeed Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.), spent years working as an FBI agent and as the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Following El-Sayed’s rally, in which he refused to condemn any of Piker’s incendiary remarks, Rogers went on a media blitz tying his potential opponent to some of the most radical statements Piker has made.
Rogers, for his part, told the Washington Reporter that “it’s pretty easy to condemn something as vile as 9/11, but my opponent just outright refuses to do it. In fact, Abdul and the Democrats’ new surrogate, Hasan Piker, is accusing Republicans of being the terrorists while he runs PR for Hamas. There’s no defense, and it should terrify everyone to see how far off the rails Democrats have gone.”
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Reporter about his position on Palestinian terrorism or about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After his rally with El-Sayed caused Democrats a series of headaches, Piker went on the Pod Save America show, where he reiterated that he “do[es] mean” that Hamas is one thousand times better than Israel.
Rogers is far from alone in the GOP in tying Piker’s radical views to those of other Democrats. In a recent interview with the Reporter, Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) did the same.
