El-Sayed takes aim at Rogers in Lansing, dismisses GOP attack ads

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was dismissive of the relentless attacks being waged against him by Republicans in campaign ads, saying his focus is on issues that matter to Michigan residents.

“They’re going to try and talk about anything and everything to try to tear people apart because they understand that it’s our collective action that can actually solve our problems, and it’s our collective action to kick them out of office,” El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed’s comments were to reporters Friday following a town hall event before a crowd of more than 300 inside Grewal Hall in downtown Lansing.

He dismissed rhetoric from conservative groups and Republicans in recent ads over his faith, recent ads using imagery of the 9/11 attacks and accusations of him affiliating with extremists and extremist groups.

“I didn’t run because I was interested in having all of these big national debates; I’m interested in protecting Michiganders from the failure of our national debate,” El-Sayed said. “Right now, all of the consequences of a broken Trump politics are falling hardest on Michiganders.”

He added that the questions asked by the audience on Friday were about issues like AI, affordability and the environment, not about culture war issues that are being pushed by Republicans.

“All the rest of it is just noise. I get it’s clickbait, but it’s just noise,” El-Sayed said.

The attacks stem from El-Sayed having appeared at multiple campaign events with liberal Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, whose controversial comments in the past include remarks about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Piker’s comments were reportedly walked back by him in 2019. El-Sayed’s unwillingness to distance himself from Piker, however, has been a constant attack against El-Sayed since the general election campaign began.

Prior to the Lansing event, Michigan Republican Party senior communications advisor Greg Manz took aim at El-Sayed, repeating the attacks made in recent ads and tying him to Piker.

“Today, we honor the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans murdered by radical Islamic terrorists. Conman Abdul El-Sayed’s despicable words are disqualifying and an insult to the memory of those we lost,” Manz said. “Even worse, Conman Abdul El-Sayed exploits the hatred that caused 9/11 to fundraise and justifies sympathizing with terrorists to this very day.”

While speaking to the Grewal Hall crowd, El-Sayed delivered a litany of attacks on Rogers while noting he was still standing despite the 11-to-1 margin that opponents outspent him during the primary.

“Which only validated my message: you shouldn’t be able to spend that much money on an election,” El-Sayed said. “We’ve got 53 days, and the opponent that I’m up against is the spitting image of everything that is wrong with our political system.”

El-Sayed then mocked Rogers for going to Dallas and delivering a speech on Thursday at the Republican Party’s midterm convention, saying he did not talk about any of the economic issues he has been talking about on the campaign trail.

“The reason he can’t talk about this trade war with Canada, and the fact that we’re paying an average of $5,600 a year for it, the reason he won’t about the hot war in Iran which we’re paying $1,650 for, the reason he won’t talk about any of it is because Donald Trump won’t let him,” El-Sayed said. “Those are Donald Trump’s policies, and he won’t talk about it because he knows he can’t say it.”

He then pivoted to a regular attack he has made against Rogers by calling him a rubber stamp for Trump’s policies.

This led to him repeating an attack on Rogers over votes on healthcare while serving in Congress which he said were against lowering prices for people. He also said Rogers took campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies and other large corporations. He then attacked him for his earnings after leaving Congress and working as a consultant for several major companies.

“And now he’s back for another swing through the revolving door to try to make more money off the rest of us,” El-Sayed said. “He is captured and corporate and a coward, and when the question comes about our ability to live our lives, our ability to afford our groceries or our gas or our housing, he will be nowhere to be found.”

El-Sayed added that attacks from Rogers and Republicans will fail.

“You can keep saying my name. You can. Doesn’t change the fact that at some point you’re going to learn to say my name with the word ‘senator’ in front of it,” El-Sayed said.