Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed appeared before the Michigan Democratic Party's Jewish caucus on Saturday with a direct apology for remarks he made following a March attack on Temple Israel, a suburban Detroit synagogue, while declining again to repudiate left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. The caucus appearance was framed as an early test of whether El-Sayed can broaden his coalition beyond the progressive base that won him the primary.
The March remarks arose after a Lebanese-born man attempted an attack on the synagogue. The attacker had lost relatives in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon the week before. El-Sayed initially condemned the attack outright, then released a four-minute video calling it "an evil act of displaced rage" while also arguing that "hurt people hurt people." He asked people to imagine the perpetrator's circumstances had his family survived and said "violence is a cycle." At the time, he told his campaign the video was a "risk" but that leadership meant "being willing to say the thing if you believe it to be true that nobody else is going to say."
On Saturday, El-Sayed told the caucus: "I made a mistake. I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop." Speaking to reporters afterward, he acknowledged he had tried to offer context but that "it wasn't the time for context" and did not want to "trample somebody's pain."
The Piker problem
The harder variable is Piker. El-Sayed stumped with and appeared alongside the California-based streamer during the primary and has refused to distance himself since. Asked repeatedly about Piker on Saturday, he dismissed the line of questioning: "If you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you're missing the boat."
Piker's reach was an asset in the primary and has since become a recurring liability. Earlier this month, Piker said American Jews who closely align with Israel risk becoming targets of violence. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called those remarks "dangerous, malicious and antisemitic." El-Sayed responded with a statement calling antisemitism "a scourge" and opposing "any rhetoric that puts the community at risk," but he did not name Piker.
His Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has labeled Piker El-Sayed's "running mate." Responding to Saturday's apology on X, Rogers said El-Sayed had "six months to apologize" and is "trying to con Michiganders" into thinking his beliefs changed.