It was a relatively simple question for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed to answer during his debate against Republican Mike Rogers: “Who’s a bigger threat to the U.S., Israel or Iran?”
“That’s a ridiculous hypothetical,” el Sayed responded.
For someone who apparently is highly educated, it’s clear that el Sayed does not understand what the word “hypothetical” means.
The threat from Iran has manifested itself for nearly five decades in the form of countless American deaths, hostage taking, and wreaking havoc in the Middle East through its terrorist proxies. That includes Hamas, which carried out the worst atrocity against the Jews since World War II three years ago.
Iran has also been hellbent on building a nuclear weapon for years. Its uranium enrichment for such a weapon had reached above 60% before America launched its war against Iran.
At last check, Israel is our closest ally. It hasn’t killed hundreds of U.S. military members over the years. It didn’t blow up the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241. It didn’t kidnap 52 Americans and hold them for more than two years while thumbing its nose at the Carter administration.
From the beginning of his quest to be Michigan’s next senator, el Sayed has sought to build a coalition of Muslim voters, particularly in Dearborn and college-age voters on campuses including the University of Michigan and Michigan State University — all while also attempting to bring in moderate Democrats in a state that President Donald Trump won twice.
To do so, the 41-year-old has portrayed himself as both a left-wing proponent of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and government-run healthcare — and a middle-of-the-road capitalist who actually isn’t a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
And it’s laughable.
Take el Sayed’s sudden embrace of former President Barack Obama.
“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President Barack Obama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” the candidate wrote on X.
Now juxtapose that with what el Sayed wrote back in 2012 for the Huffington Post, which was a stinging rebuke of Obama for not being left-wing enough.
“This leader has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on,” he argued at the time.
“That memory will serve not as a reminder of the history we made that night – but of the silly emotions of a naïve young man who didn’t understand that hope and change required more than flowery prose and a winning smile,” he continued. “I have little hope because there has been less change.”
How times have changed.
Recruiting Obama to help bring in more of the black vote is obviously what the plan is here. It’s no secret that el Sayed is having serious trouble getting the level of black support needed out of population centers such as Detroit and Flint. In the Democratic primary against Haley Stevens, el Sayed received just 21% black support, compared with Stevens’s 67%.
To underscore this point, polling in July showed that just 21% of black voters backed el Sayed, while 67% supported Stevens. And according to a recent Fox News poll, when pitted against Rogers, el Sayed received 77% of black support, which looks good on paper before considering that 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris got 88% of the black vote in Michigan. In a close race, that could make all the difference.
And then there’s the question if el Sayed is a socialist or the capitalist he says he is.
“I’m not a socialist. I’m just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works,” he declared in July. “The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation — it was always monopoly.”
But if el Sayed isn’t a socialist, why exactly did he invite Hasan Piker, the Democratic Socialists of America maniac who lamented the fall of the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong’s stranglehold over China, to headline a big campaign event right before the primary? Piker, of course, also has said that America deserved 9/11, that Jews are “inbreds,” and that “we need to move beyond the binary of capitalism versus communism and explore alternative models of economic organization.”
Piker, of course, is talking about socialism.
El Sayed also headlined at least five rallies and fundraisers sponsored by the DSA in past years, including a Green New Deal event with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). No speaking engagements at any pro-capitalism events could be found, however. Go figure.
And then there are several videos that have been scrubbed from the internet for obvious reasons, including a July 2024 video calling for a ban on Fourth of July fireworks due to threats to air quality and what he called PTSD risks.
There’s also a 2019 Thanksgiving post demanding reparations for indigenous peoples. That too was deleted. In 2020, he supported defunding the police, but he and the campaign have tried to bury that advocacy by scrubbing those posts as well.
El Sayed’s campaign explained the Etch A Sketch as a simple evolution on those issues and “to prevent any old posts from being taken out of context.”
It’s as clear as mud how any of these straightforward statements were being taken out of context.
Finally, there’s the whole “Dr. Abdul el Sayed” title. He uses it to position himself as some kind of healthcare expert to push Medicare for All, an idea that, according to sane and sober experts, would bankrupt the country.
Twenty economists recently joined the highly respected Michael Boskin of the Hoover Institution to warn of the cost of a single-payer, government-run healthcare system. They concluded that the price tag would be $32 trillion over 10 years and therefore would require dramatic tax increases, all while lowering access to healthcare and the quality of it.
Nevertheless, “Dr.” el Sayed has made Medicare for All a centerpiece of his campaign. But there’s one problem: He doesn’t own a medical license.
“I’ve been a doctor my whole career,” he claimed earlier this year. “I’ve been in enough codes to watch who really does the work.”
But records show that the only time he had any remote experience treating patients was during a four-week internship at a hospital in New York City.
ABDUL EL SAYED HAS STABILIZED HIS MICHIGAN SENATE CAMPAIGN. CAN THE DEMOCRAT HOLD THE GAINS?
“As a matter of fact, if somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail,” Rogers noted this week.
In the end, always judge a person, and particularly politicians, on their actions instead of their words.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
