{"id":239882,"date":"2026-08-07T13:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/239882\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:28:14","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-refuses-to-distance-himself-from-anti-israel-extremist-hasan-piker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/239882\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed refuses to distance himself from anti-Israel extremist Hasan Piker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far-left Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed gave a mealy-mouthed answer about his ties to extremist socialist streamer Hasan Piker<\/a> in a softball interview with the New York Times \u2013 even as Jewish constituents voice deep concerns about his march to the Senate.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed, 41, eked out a narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens<\/a> in Tuesday night\u2019s Senate primary, besting her by fewer than 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million cast.<\/p>\n

The slim win came after polls had shown El-Sayed leading by double digits just a week before the contest.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed speaks at an election night watch party on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan. The Democratic primary for U.S. Senate was too close to call at the time he spoke. (Represented by ZUMA Press, Inc.) ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdeserved 9\/11,\u201d and claiming it \u201cdoesn\u2019t matter\u201d if rapes occurred during Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack against Israel.<\/p>\n

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, \u201cLook, I\u2019m just a lot more focused on who I\u2019m campaigning to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"AbdulAbdul El-Sayed talks poolside with streamer Hasan Piker at a party for content creators supporting his campaign on Monday, August 3, 2026, in Detroit. (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson<\/p>\n

In the video, El-Sayed noted the attacker had lost family members in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, and said \u201cviolence always begets violence,\u201d which some Jewish critics took as a dogwhistle justification for the attack.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a scary time right now,\u201d Joe Tigay, 44, a father of three young children, told the Detroit Free Press.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he says Israel has a right to exist, that would be great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek shared a similar sentiment, saying the fear in the community about El-Sayed\u2019s ascent is the result of his choosing to \u201cfalsely justify an act of terrorism,\u201d referring to the Temple Israel attack.<\/p>\n

He also specifically called out Piker\u2019s prominent position in his campaign as another red flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a right-wing politician were to platform a member of the Ku Klux Klan, we would be outraged,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way, when Dr. El-Sayed platforms Hasan Piker, we are outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Far-left Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed gave a mealy-mouthed answer about his ties to extremist socialist streamer Hasan Piker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[22474,1275,22475,37,8576,81,1289,933],"class_list":["post-239882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-abdul-el-sayed","tag-democrats","tag-hasan-piker","tag-israel","tag-michigan","tag-politics","tag-senate","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117054466137865369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}