Topline<\/p>\n
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said Monday he hasn\u2019t condemned Hasan Piker because he doesn\u2019t agree with \u201ccancel culture,\u201d defending Piker generally in his most extensive comments yet amid fallout over Piker\u2019s incendiary remarks about Israel. <\/p>\n
US Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan Abdul El-Sayed speaks with reporters during a Student Meet and Greet at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 26, 2026. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
El-Sayed told Charlamagne tha God on his Monday radio show, \u201cthere\u2019s this massive effort to cancel Hasan\u2014my point is that I don\u2019t do cancel culture. I go everywhere, I talk to everybody,\u201d noting he also recently sat for an interview with Fox News\u2019 Jesse Waters. <\/p>\n
El-Sayed said \u201cthe fact they\u2019re trying to work so hard to character assassinate him suggests there is a disjunct there between what he is actually saying and what people hear him say,\u201d noting Piker \u201cstreams for eight hours a day, seven days a week\u201d and some of his statements are often \u201cclipped out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the backlash he\u2019s received over his affiliation with Piker \u201cis intended to confuse and distract us from the actual issue. He never spoke for me, I don\u2019t speak for him, he has his opinion, I have mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
El-Sayed told reporters on Saturday when asked about Piker, \u201cif you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you\u2019re missing the boat,\u201d and said later in the day, \u201cthis is about Donald Trump\u2019s disastrous policies in Michigan. That\u2019s what I\u2019m focused on right now. I am not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California.\u201d<\/p>\n
El-Sayed made the comments while meeting with the Michigan Democratic Party\u2019s Jewish Caucus, where he apologized for previous comments he made in the wake of an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue in March\u2014El-Sayed condemned the attack, but said \u201churt people hurt people,\u201d referring to the gunman, who had family members in Lebanon killed in Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n
He told the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus on Saturday, \u201cmy comments might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify. To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I\u2019m really sorry, that was not my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tangent<\/p>\n
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made similar comments about the criticism over El-Sayed\u2019s ties to Piker, telling Politico in an interview released Monday, \u201clike every other podcaster in the world, he says dumb things that people should reject.\u201d Sanders characterized the ongoing backlash against El-Sayed over Piker\u2019s comments as a GOP attack line: \u201cApparently it works when you and others talk about Mr. Piker,\u201d he told the Politico reporter, urging El-Sayed to \u201cstay on the issues that impact working families in Michigan.\u201d Sanders and El-Sayed have not joined a wave of other Democrats\u2014including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Michigan\u2019s other senator, Democrat Elissa Slotkin\u2014in condemning Piker\u2019s comments earlier this month that critics said suggested pro-Israel rhetoric could be blamed for antisemitic violence. Sanders, acknowledging the ideological divide in the Democratic Party amid a wave of progressive wins this primary season, also told Politico he believes some Democrats don\u2019t want El-Sayed to win. \u201cI think there are a few who would say, \u2018you know what? It\u2019s not worth it.\u2019\u201d He said \u201ca small number\u201d of party leaders and the \u201cdonor class\u201d view the progressive movement as \u201ca threat to oligarchy\u201d and a \u201cthreat to American foreign policy and our continued support for the extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big Number<\/p>\n
4. That\u2019s how many percentage points El-Sayed leads GOP nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, by in an Epic-MRA poll out Monday, though 10% of voters are undecided.<\/p>\n
Key Background<\/p>\n
Piker, who has campaigned with El-Sayed and other progressives, ignited intense backlash when he said in an Aug. 21 Twitch stream that \u201cif Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not just against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.\u201d He also criticized state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in Michigan\u2019s 11th Congressional District, who is Jewish, for proliferating the narrative that Jews are \u201csingularly invested in the continuation of the Israeli apartheid\u201d over Moss\u2019 past statements that El-Sayed needed to strengthen ties with the Oakland County Jewish community. Amid the backlash, Piker explained to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he was trying to highlight the \u201cdangerous false notion\u201d that \u201call Jews are singularly invested in Israel.\u201d Piker is a fierce critic of Israel and Zionism and often tries to make a distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. El-Sayed issued a statement last week condemning antisemitism and \u201cany rhetoric that puts the community at risk\u201d in the wake of Piker\u2019s comments and said \u201cnobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople,\u201d though he did not mention Piker by name. He told Semafor later in the week he has no plans to campaign with Piker again.<\/p>\n
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