Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed can’t escape questions about his relationship with progressive streamer Hasan Piker.
The mainstream media has been grilling El-Sayed on just how alike he and Piker are, specifically pressing on radical and controversial remarks made by the social media personality. On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Kristen Welker wanted to know how the candidate felt about Piker’s previous assertion that the country “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.
While he has apologized for this comment, many still take issue with him over it and other apparently terrorist-supporting statements, such as calling Hamas a lesser evil than Israel.
Watch:
“You’ve faced scrutiny for campaigning with Socialist streamer, Hasan Piker, who has made a series of inflammatory comments, as you well know, including saying America deserved 9/11, describing Hamas as a lesser evil than Israel. Do you plan to continue to campaign with Hasan Piker in the general election campaign?” Welker asked.
“Look, I’m less concerned now with who I’m campaigning with and a lot more concerned about who I’m campaigning to. We’ve got a lot of work to do to continue to build the coalition that’s going to beat Mike Rogers,” he said, avoiding the question.
“Would you welcome him, though, on the campaign trail with you?” the host pressed.
“Like I said, I’m a lot more focused on who I’m campaigning to. I think we have this notion sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should not talk to certain groups of people. And I’ll tell you that the three million people who listen to Hasan are people I want to make sure understand that there’s a pathway into our politics around getting money out of politics so we can get money back in pockets and pass Medicare for All. And so I’m going to continue to have the conversations with those folks who we desperately need to reach out,” El-Sayed responded.
After seeing her soft-ball questions were not going to get the job done, Welker decided to get more pointed.
“When asked about Hasan Piker’s comments on 9/11, Senator Bernie Sanders called it a dumb statement. Do you agree? Do you disavow those comments that America deserved 9/11?” she grilled.
“Of course, of course. It was a dumb statement. And, of course, I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So yes. America didn’t deserve 9/11. But, you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context, that they disavowed themselves, to say, ‘Oh, well, what does that mean about what you think?’ I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do rather than this idea that we’re so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back,” he finally answered.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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