Michigan Senate Candidate El-Sayed Refuses to Condemn Piker's Comments, Sparks Controversy
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“Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has so-far refused to condemn the words of Hasan Piker, his friend and frequent campaign surrogate,” wrote Schneider, a co-chairman of the congressional Jewish caucus. “It is disingenuous for El-Sayed to try to distance himself from Piker without specifically condemning, refuting, or even just rejecting Piker’s hurtful rhetoric.”
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The Daily WirePiker, who previously claimed “America deserved 9/11” and praised Hamas, pulled back the curtain on El-Sayed’s damage-control act following nationwide outrage over Piker’s latest toxic rant against Jewish Americans. Piker reassured his audience that El-Sayed’s public statements are merely a calculated political play and that El-Sayed remains fully in his camp.
PoliticoAbdul El-Sayed distances himself from Hasan Piker’s comments on American Jews The progressive streamer’s comments suggesting people may “take action” against Jews in the U.S. drew a rebuke from other Michigan Democrats.
BreitbartGottheimer said, “El-Sayed’s statement totally fell short. You’re talking about a guy, Hasan Piker, who’s a — as you pointed out, he posts on Twitch and streams on Twitch, millions of followers. He is nothing more than a grifter and a hater. Although, unfortunately, many of my colleagues have decided to campaign with him. Many of — many Democratic candidates have campaigned with him, including El-Sayed, who in his — the last night before his primary had Hasan Piker front and center with him. And his statement yesterday, instead of coming out and condemning Piker, condemning his statement, saying he refuses to ever campaign with him again, he did nothing of the sort. And, to me, the fact that he leaves the window open to do more with Hasan Piker, it’s totally unacceptable.
Fox NewsHouse Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is slamming comments from Hasan Piker after the far-left controversial online streamer suggested that Jewish Americans were inviting violence against themselves over their support for Israel.
HuffPostMichigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed asked Fox News host Jesse Watters if he was circumcised during an argument about gender-affirming care on Monday.
Washington TimesMichigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed drew a wave of criticism from conservative commentators Monday night after comparing Islamic Sharia law to Catholic canon law during a contentious interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
NBC NewsAbdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, tangled with Fox News host Jesse Watters in an interview Monday, repeatedly pivoting from “culture war” questions to refocus on affordability in his state.
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Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., praised Jeffries' pushback against Piker. In an interview on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," Gottheimer called Piker's comments something "right out of the Nazi playbook."
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Washington ExaminerRep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NY), an outspoken Jewish critic of el Sayed, said “anyone campaigning with [Piker] is part of the problem” that Democrats have with denouncing violence against American Jews. He added there was “no way I’m ever coming out for el Sayed right now” when asked by CNN on Tuesday if he would vote for him.
BreitbartOn Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said that Hasan Piker is “calling for violence against Jews, American Jews who support the U.S.-Israeli relationship, literally calling for them to be attacked, which is a Nazi-like formula” and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed isn’t clearly denouncing Piker and is leaving the door open to continuing to campaign with him.
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Piker endorsed El-Sayed for the Democratic nomination and appeared at some of the candidate's campaign events including a primary night party earlier this month in Detroit, Michigan.
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Washington ExaminerFormer Jill Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa called it “disqualifying behavior for any Democrat” to campaign with Piker. El Sayed appeared with Piker on multiple occasions during the primary.
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“So, canon law is the name for Christian law,” he said. “I don’t begrudge you your right to practice your faith as you choose. I don’t know why the idea that I could practice my faith as I choose is a problem. Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else. Just like I hope, nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of your religion.”
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Washington Examiner“So, canon law is the name for Christian law,” el Sayed said to Watters. “I don’t begrudge you your right to practice your faith.”
Washington TimesMr. El-Sayed responded by drawing a parallel to Catholicism. “Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else, just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else,” he said, adding that Americans should have “the freedom of your religion.”
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After a brief exchange on whether El-Sayed thinks the National Football League is racist, prompting him to simply complain about high ticket prices, Watters then asked, “Sex changes for minors, do you support that?”
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HuffPostOn X, Watters claimed the remark was evidence that El-Sayed was throwing “HIS SUPPORT BEHIND SEX-CHANGE SURGERIES FOR MINORS,” prompting many in the GOP to take aim at the Democrat on social media.
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Watters answered in the affirmative and called it a “personal question.” “It’s a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient,” El-Sayed said. “I’m just saying that yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling. So if you really want to bring that up, you can. I just think you guys are really selective about these things.”
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HuffPostWatters: “A circumcision is different than castration.” El-Sayed: “I just think it’s a problem that you think you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient. I’m just saying that, yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling, so if you really wanna bring that up, you can. I just think you guys are really selective about how you want to talk about these things.”
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“You seem a little naive, Abdul. I give you credit for facing the music, but some of the stuff’s just straight up wacky,” Watters said. “You know, I don’t know if that’s going to fly in Michigan.”
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HuffPostWatters: “That’s wacky. Abdul, Michigan’s not going for that. That is sick stuff.”
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“Getting rid of Sharia law is White supremacy? Can you explain that one?” Mr. Watters asked.
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Washington ExaminerWatters continued to challenge el Sayed on prior statements, including the candidate’s claim of a connection between banning sharia law and white supremacy. El Sayed began his argument by comparing sharia law to canon law.
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While the Michigan Democrat distanced himself from Piker in a statement, he did not outright denounce the streamer’s comments.
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For the next 25 minutes, the two men sparred over the Iran war, the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, Black voters and other topics. The chat took an especially combative turn when Watters used cringe wording to ask El-Sayed for his thoughts on gender-affirming care for minors.
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El-Sayed didn’t miss a beat, firing back: “Do you really wanna have this conversation? Are you circumcised?”
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Fox News While Jeffries became the highest-ranking congressional Democrat to fire back at Piker, the criticism from the top Democrat in the U.S. House comes after he has largely stayed silent on the far-left insurgency, backed in part by Piker, that's gripped his party this election cycle.
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02 NBC News “You want to bring up all this culture war,” El-Sayed told Watters during the 25-minute interview. “I’m not here to fight a culture war. I’m here to fight the affordability crisis that people are facing.”
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03 Washington Examiner “When he brought up the circumcision part, it’s like, ‘My God’ — this is the difference between a nose job and decapitation,” Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Tuesday on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
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04 National Review No Daylight Between Abdul El-Sayed and Hasan Piker El-Sayed spent months campaigning with the antisemitic online personality when his views were well known.
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05 HuffPost Abdul El-Sayed’s controversial interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Monday has enraged a number of prominent Republicans, including some of President Donald Trump’s devotees.
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06 Washington Times Mr. Watters pressed Mr. El-Sayed on comments he made in a 2022 speech to the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-Oklahoma, in which he likened efforts to ban Sharia law to the historical forces behind the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa race massacre and the Oklahoma City bombing.
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07 Breitbart Gottheimer added, “A refusal to condemn somebody like that, who is spreading such hatred and calling on people — calling for violence against Jews, American Jews who support the U.S.-Israeli relationship, literally calling for them to be attacked, which is a Nazi-like formula, to me, is totally unacceptable, and we should make it very clear. And refusal to condemn — you’re complicit if you refuse to condemn comments like that.” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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08 The Daily Wire “There are going to be a lot of people who are already questioning Abdul El-Sayed’s sincerity on these issues that will then turn around and say, ‘Oh, he’s, you know, he’s moderating his position on Israel,’ all this stuff. I don’t think he is,” Piker said. “Okay, I will say this. I am literally the person that is being dangled. And I’m going to tell you once again, he’s not moderating on his perspective on Israel or anything like that. His reaction to this has always been very good, which is, ‘Look, I deal with people that I don’t fully agree with and don’t fully subscribe to on a daily basis. This is politics. Politics is about addition, not subtraction, right?'”
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