Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants and a former public health official, is making his final campaign push ahead of next week’s midterm election, hoping to defeat Republican opponent Mike Rogers. Yet El-Sayed, who is attempting to campaign on the issue of affordability, can’t bury credible accusations of being antisemitic and an Islamic terrorism sympathizer. Being linked to 9/11 apologist Hasan Piker isn’t helping his cause, either.
El-Sayed’s pledge to fight President Donald Trump’s agenda only distracts voters from his dangerous ideological and policy positions. Rogers has pointed out repeatedly that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist organization designated as a terrorist group.
“Israel is an affordability issue,” El-Sayed said in an August interview. “Every time you want to put glasses on kids’ faces or give people healthcare or fix a school, somebody pops up and is like, ‘Well, how are you going to pay for that?’ I don’t know.” He added, “Maybe we should keep our money here instead of sending it there to drop bombs on people’s schools or their hospitals. That’s our money.”
Keep this statement in mind as we look at a campaign ad re-released last weekend by Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC.
New @RebellionPac ad dropping in Michigan. We have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars. That’s why they buy politicians like Mike Rogers. He promised to serve Israel “unconditionally,” but never made that promise to you.
The ad, originally made for Uygur’s 2024 presidential campaign (what, you didn’t know about his candidacy?) and retrofitted to promote El-Sayed’s Senate campaign, depicts a couple in a grocery store. The wife tells the husband, “You’re going to have to put those eggs back. We have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.” The husband responds, “What? Don’t we give Israel $4 billion a year anyway?” His wife replies, “Yeah, and now we’re giving them another $26 billion. Apparently it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza.” The husband then asks, “Don’t they get universal healthcare too?” The wife replies, “Yeah, they do. And we’re paying for that too, probably. Might as well put the bananas back.”
So, according to the ad, the reason consumer prices are so high right now is because the U.S. gives aid to Israel.
This antisemitic trash peddles the age-old lie that Jews are responsible for every economic and social woe, both internationally and domestically. We’ve spent a little more than $21 billion on Israel since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, which is hardly a blip in our annual budget. Israel spends a lot of that money on American military supplies, too. And if we stopped sending money to Israel, egg prices — which are back down in the mid-$2 range, not $7 like they were under Joe Biden — wouldn’t change.
“We must not pretend that $21 billion is not a lot of money or forget that (again) every taxpayer has the right to support or oppose sending $1 (let alone $21 billion) to any country, including Israel,” writes political commentator Ian Haworth. “But if you think that $21 billion is the reason you can’t afford a $7 carton of eggs, you’re either stupid or you just hate Jews.”
Moreover, the U.S. does not pay for Israel’s universal healthcare.
When confronted about the ad, El-Sayed’s campaign merely said, “Abdul is focused on pushing back against Trump’s agenda that is raising prices for Michiganders. No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign.” Notice how that is not a denunciation.
Stop saying Abdul El Sayed "disavowed" that antisemitic ad. He didn't—he couldn't—because he agrees with every word of it and spent his entire primary espousing the exact same view: All your problems stem from Israel and the Jews who support it. Show more
El-Sayed’s failure to denounce the ad is unsurprising given his claim that Israel is “an affordability issue.” His silence fits the same narrative.
One must also consider the ad’s source. Cenk Uygur regularly peddles anti-Israel rhetoric on his podcast, “The Young Turks.” He’s also the uncle of radical-left influencer Hasan Piker, with whom El-Sayed has campaigned. For those unfamiliar with Piker, he has said outrageous things like America “deserved 9/11.”
El-Sayed can either denounce the ad and alienate Michigan’s radical leftists, or he can say nothing and hope that the rest of Michigan’s voters are too dumb to see what’s right before their eyes. It’s a gamble that could pay off. We’ll see next week.
