Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul el Sayed, has a stock answer whenever he’s asked about his close friend and campaign surrogate, Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11, called the U.S. government worse terrorists than al Qaeda, and has openly praised various jihadis and Communist dictators while expressing a seething hatred for the United States.
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America → have → States
El Sayed deflects, saying that his race isn’t about a “streamer from California,” feigning amnesia over Piker’s name.
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race → deflect → name
In a recent interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum, the candidate said his “conversation” with Piker was no different than the on-air discussion he was having with her.
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he → say → her
This might have been a compelling answer if he’d invited MacCallum to appear with him on the stump five times in Michigan, which is what el Sayed did with Piker (el Sayed recently lied that he and Piker had only appeared together once on the trail).
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he → invite → trail
Regardless, he clearly still has the phone number of this suddenly nameless “California streamer,” as CNN reports that he recently rang up his endorser and begged him to maybe hit the mute button until the election is over.
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election → have → button
“El-Sayed recently called Piker and warned his rhetoric was costing El-Sayed votes, asking him to stop,” according to the outlet.
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rhetoric → call → outlet
Piker’s grave sin here, you’ll notice, is not outwardly supporting terrorists or despising America.
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you → notice → America
It’s the threat of his vile outbursts costing el Sayed votes.
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It → ’ → votes
El Sayed can’t have that.
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Sayed → have → that
For now, at least, he’d rather his top supporter stop speaking until approximately Nov. 4.
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supporter → stop → Nov.
El Sayed himself is also attempting to sidestep what he views as sensitive issues or risky terrain.
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he → attempt → issues
For instance, he declined to offer any statement about the Oct. 7 anniversary.
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he → decline → anniversary
Yes, despite his near-constant obsession with Israel, he finally picked one specific day on which to fall silent on the subject.
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he → pick → subject
When asked about the notable silence, he initially didn’t bother to attempt any explanation.
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he → ask → explanation
One might think it should be rather easy to unflinchingly condemn a terrorist massacre that slaughtered nearly 1,200 men, women, and children — including dozens of Americans — but el Sayed went with a “no comment.”
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Sayed → think → comment
Perhaps he was worried about offending his base, which is why he also didn’t weigh in on the death of Iran’s evil “supreme leader,” warning his campaign that many of his core supporters were mourning the loss of the blood-drenched, theocratic tyrant (when pressed on this last week, el Sayed snapped that it wasn’t a “smart” question and refused to answer.
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it → offend → this
As we’ll discover, this avoidance tactic is becoming a pattern).
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tactic → discover → ?
Maybe he was having uncomfortable flashbacks to his appalling response to an Islamist terrorist attack against a Synagogue in Michigan earlier this year, in which he made excuses for the terrorist with a “hurt people hurt people” equivocation that also cast blame on Israel (which had eliminated members of the attacker’s family.
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which → have → family
The fact that they were apparently confirmed fighters in the terrorist group Hezbollah was left unmentioned in el Sayed’s analysis).
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they → confirm → analysis
It’s possible that el Sayed sees Election Day rapidly approaching and determined that saying how he truly feels about Hamas’s atrocity would cost him votes, so instead, he offered … nothing.
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he → ’ → nothing
He tried to spin this choice as a high-minded refusal to “politicize” the attack, but on Oct. 7, 2025, he fundraised off an email blast that blasted Israel, but not Hamas.
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that → try → Israel
Along similar lines, NewsNation journalist Leland Vittert informed el Sayed earlier this month that one of his supporters had called Israel a greater threat to the U.S. than the Iranian regime.
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one → inform → regime
Did el Sayed agree with that assessment?
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Sayed → agree → assessment
The candidate launched into a lengthy diatribe against Israel and the conflict against Iran, not bothering to even hint at any negative sentiments toward the regime in Tehran.
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candidate → launch → Tehran
Realizing he hadn’t addressed the “bigger threat” question, even as he spent his time bashing the Jewish state, el Sayed concluded his nonanswer with an insult: “This sort of, like, hypothetical ‘who’s a bigger threat’ is a dumb question.”
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’s → realize → insult
In a fiery debate later in the week, he ducked a moderator’s follow-ups on this “hypothetical” issue as “ridiculous.”
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he → duck → issue
It’s not hypothetical at all.
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It → ’ → ?
It should be a dumb and ridiculous question when posed to a candidate for high office in the U.S.
Obviously, the “death to America” regime that has spent the better part of half a century targeting and murdering Americans, developing an unchallenged reputation as the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and aggressively pursuing an illicit nuclear program is a grave threat to our country.
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that → pose → country
Equally obviously, this committed and fanatical enemy bears no resemblance to Israel — a pluralistic democracy and stalwart American ally that shares valuable intelligence with us, does a great deal of our dirty work in the region, and faithfully tracks and liquidates threats to our mutual security.
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that → bear → security
So, the notion of Iran and Israel even being mentioned in the same derogatory context is preposterous, especially if someone is trying to pretend Israel somehow compares unfavorably to the mullahs.
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Israel → mention → mullahs
But the question asked of el Sayed is, frighteningly, no longer “dumb” or “ridiculous.”
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question → ask → Sayed
It’s essential.
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It → ’ → ?
And the answer he furnished exposed why.
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he → furnish → ?
This dynamic is reminiscent of another recent exchange, in which anti-Israel agitator Mahmoud Khalil once again refused to condemn Hamas on CNN.
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Khalil → refuse → CNN
He was asked to do so, he dismissed the question as “silly” (sound familiar?), and rejected the premise as a useless “litmus test.”
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he → ask → test
“Will you condemn a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that has murdered many Americans” is indeed a litmus test.
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that → condemn → Americans
It’s an easy one.
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It → ’ → ?
Khalil, a guest in this country, failed the test.
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Khalil → fail → test
As a leader in a campus group that called, in writing, for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” it’s not a great mystery as to where this terrorism supporter and bigot’s loyalties lie.
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loyalties → call → civilization
It’s also an unsettling sign of the times how many elected Democrats have championed his cause as the Trump administration seeks his deportation.
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administration → ’ → deportation
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
