Far-left Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed gave a mealy-mouthed answer about his ties to extremist socialist streamer Hasan Piker in a softball interview with the New York Times – even as Jewish constituents voice deep concerns about his march to the Senate.
El-Sayed, 41, eked out a narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens in Tuesday night’s Senate primary, besting her by fewer than 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million cast.
The slim win came after polls had shown El-Sayed leading by double digits just a week before the contest.
Piker, a leftist provocateur who was one of his biggest boosters on the campaign trail, has a history of making repugnant, anti-American and anti-Israel comments, such as saying the US “deserved 9/11,” and claiming it “doesn’t matter” if rapes occurred during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack against Israel.
The Times asked him whether he plans to retain Piker as a surrogate headed into the general election in November, but he refused to drop him. Instead, El-Sayed demurred, saying only, “Look, I’m just a lot more focused on who I’m campaigning to.”
The Michigan Dem has his own checkered past of eyebrow-raising comments, including a video message he issued a day after a March 12 terror attack in which a man drove his pickup truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, which was full of schoolchildren at the time.
In the video, El-Sayed noted the attacker had lost family members in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, and said “violence always begets violence,” which some Jewish critics took as a dogwhistle justification for the attack.
Such comments, as well as his association with Piker, are stoking fear among Michigan Jews, who question whether his rhetoric will put them in danger if he’s elected.
“It is just a scary time right now,” Joe Tigay, 44, a father of three young children, told the Detroit Free Press.
Tigay, who said he voted twice for former President Barack Obama, said he was more likely to support Republican nominee Mike Rogers unless El-Sayed extended an olive branch to the Jewish community.
“If he says Israel has a right to exist, that would be great,” he said.
Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek shared a similar sentiment, saying the fear in the community about El-Sayed’s ascent is the result of his choosing to “falsely justify an act of terrorism,” referring to the Temple Israel attack.
He also specifically called out Piker’s prominent position in his campaign as another red flag.
“If a right-wing politician were to platform a member of the Ku Klux Klan, we would be outraged,” he told the outlet.
“In the same way, when Dr. El-Sayed platforms Hasan Piker, we are outraged.”
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