WASHINGTON — Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly refused to answer whether he considers Iran or Israel to be the “greater threat to the United States.”
When presented with that question during his debate Thursday against Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers, El-Sayed ripped it as a “ridiculous hypothetical.”
“Here’s what’s happening right now: our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,” El-Sayed, a Democrat, replied. “We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply.”
“This is a situation in which I don’t think we should be a part [of],” he added. “I want our money spent here to buy schools and health care and child care here.”
Pressed again about which country is the bigger threat to the US, El-Sayed reiterated his point, calling it a “ridiculous question” and claiming that “both of them have proven dangerous in their own way.”
The Democratic contender previously evaded that question on the campaign trail before his verbal bout with Rogers on Thursday.
During the debate, Rogers blasted El-Sayed for his lack of clarity on terrorism and laced into him for not releasing a statement marking the three-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis. El-Sayed had ducked questions earlier in the day about why he didn’t release a statement on the grim anniversary.
“This is why you should get absolutely angry,” Rogers said. “He could not bring himself to even acknowledge the pain, the terrorism, the rape, the murders, cutting off of women’s breasts, putting children in ovens and killing them in front of their families.”
El-Sayed replied, “I condemned that,” referring to the bloody Hamas attack.
When it was Rogers’ turn to get a hypothetical question, the moderator asked him whether Israel could do anything that would go too far.
“I support just staunchly, their right to exist, the right to exist for the Jewish state and the right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood,” Rogers replied. “And if you think about why my opponent is so wrong on all of this, his biggest funders are from a group that supports the Muslim Brotherhood. He gets money from people who support openly Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda.”
“Listen, if they were talking about using nuclear weapons, they would definitely lose my support,” Rogers then answered.
Some observers noted that Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 through 2015, appeared to confirm that Israel is a nuclear power. It has long been rumored to be armed with nukes, but Israel hasn’t publicly confirmed that.
Throughout the mudslinging-heavy debate, El-Sayed accused Rogers of taking corporate dollars and being bought and paid for by donors. Rogers fired back by working to tie him to Islamic extremism. The GOP hopeful alluded to how El-Sayed’s father-in-law and donor had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and how his birth mother, Fatten Elkomy, did work for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which the Treasury went after due to its support for Osama Bin Laden.
Rogers also alluded to El-Sayed’s initial reaction to March 2026 terror atack in Michigan in which a man rammed a truck loaded with fireworks and gasoline into the daycare at Temple Israel. None of the congregants were hurt in the attack.
El-Sayed initially drew attention to the attacker appearing to be motivated by an Israeli attack in Lebanon, saying that “hurt people hurt people.” El-Sayed later apologized to a Jewish group for that response.
Both candidates seemed to use every chance they got to take potshots and dust off the opposition research compiled against the other.
“Mike does own a home in Florida!” El-Sayed swiped at one point, later bringing up his accusation that Rogers owns a yacht.
Rogers shot back, “Abdul owns a home in the United Arab Emirates! At least Florida’s in the United States!”
One frequent source of campaign fodder that surprisingly didn’t come up during the debate was El-Sayed’s associations with Mao-loving far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Rogers and Republicans have long gone after El-Sayed over his ties to Piker.
Rogers also made sure to poke at El-Sayed’s boasts about being a doctor.
“Well, he’s not really a doctor. He says he’s a physician,” Rogers scoffed early in the debate. “[As a] matter of fact, if somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail.”
“Listen to this guy and what he’s trying to sell here today,” the GOP contender went on. “You’re going to find out that this guy is not what he says he is. He is actually selling the best con I think I’ve ever seen.”
El-Sayed noted, as he has in the past, that he obtained a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The former public health official also attended the University of Michigan Medical School.
Looming large over the debate was President Trump. El-Sayed laced into Rogers over the war in Iran and tariff battle with Canada. Meanwhile, Rogers carefully worked to thread the needle of trying not to alienate the president’s hardcore backers while also appealing to independents who aren’t fond of the war in Iran or the tariff battle with Canada.
“I have actually called the White House this week, talked to the Secretary of Commerce about getting the deal done,” Rogers said, flexing his influence in Trump world while contending that he wants the trade war to end, but also believes some of the tariffs against Canada are justified.
On the Iran war, Rogers said the conflict should wrap up while accusing El-Sayed of not condemning the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“My opponent here would not condemn the IRGC, which today is hanging two 19-year-old kids for saying that they want freedom in their homeland,” Rogers said. “This is the same IRGC that has killed American troops in Iraq. It has blood on their hands. Tried a terrorist attack here in the United States. If you can’t condemn the IRGC, you have no business in the United States Senate.”
El-Sayed replied by insisting that he “will condemn any, any use of force against a domestic population abroad.”
“That’s not hard to do. But I also condemn a war we shouldn’t be fighting, because here we are fighting this stupid war because people like him have been pushing for it for 20 years,” he added.
Polls have regularly pegged the Michigan Senate race as a jumpball contest with El-Sayed notching a 3.2 percentage point edge over Rogers, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
