“I’d rather be Senator Shrek than Pontiac Platner any day,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said in response to Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed telling donors he’d be happy to see Fetterman primaried, putting one “ogre on a pike.”
Fetterman’s response tied the radical El-Sayed to the Nazi-tattooed Graham Platner, who had been Maine’s Democratic nominee for Senate before departing the race after rape allegations surfaced. The Pennsylvania senator has clashed with both Platner and El-Sayed over their hostility toward the state of Israel.
But El-Sayed has now upped the ante with what even Democrats are calling “violent, vulgar” rhetoric.
‘Ogre on a Pike’
On Monday, Politico reported on a call El-Sayed had with donors where the candidate called for Fetterman, whose pro-Israel views put him at odds with the growing antisemitic bent of his party, to be primaried. He added that should Fetterman be defeated, that would serve as a warning for other Democrats to get in line.
“If I win … well y’all came at me so now I get to come at you, and you know, primarying people like John Fetterman, I have no problem to do that,” he said on the call. “Ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different.”
The “ogre on a pike” comment, particularly in reference to the 6-foot-8-inch Fetterman, drew an immediate outcry from other Democrats.
“Violent, vulgar threats have no place in a democratic electoral contest,” Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich, said. “With political violence on the rise, we need to be doing everything we can to lower the temperature, not raise it. It’s the American people who suffer most when we degrade the political process this way.”
El-Sayed’s attack symbolized the growing friction between the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party. El-Sayed is a member of the former group while running as a Democrat.
“That is what Abdul El-Sayed and his DSA movement think of Democrats and the party,” gun control activist Fred Guttenberg wrote. He urged Michigan voters to back El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, to “show AES the loss he deserves.”
The Michigan Democratic primary will be held on Aug. 4.
El-Sayed Refuses to Apologize
El-Sayed’s campaign tried to downplay the “ogre on a pike” remark, saying he was “speaking metaphorically” about supporting a primary challenge to Fetterman. However, as the New York Post reported, El-Sayed refused to apologize during Monday evening’s primary debate when given the opportunity by debate moderator Roop Raj.
“So many people took offense to that,” Raj noted, “and it really pointed to the bigger question about the tone and tenor that you’ve been accused of having in this campaign. Do you regret any of the comments that you’ve made?”
In response, El-Sayed first made it clear that he was not referring to his primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.
“I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman, who’s a senator from Pennsylvania who has done terrible things,” El-Sayed said. “He got elected on a set of values and is now completely throwing those values in the mud.”
“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” Stevens responded. Her campaign, however, derided the remark as continuing “personal insults” and shifting focus away from Michigan.
‘Senator Shrek’ Responds
Fetterman responded to El-Sayed more fully on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday morning.
“I never worked out in male modeling—call me Senator Shrek, whatever,” Fetterman said. “But this guy is really the Pontiac Platner, and now he’s really running to [be] head of our emerging pro-Hamas wing here in the party. Politically, some of the things that he’s said or done are unacceptable to me.”
“I’m not really sure what I’ve really done or voted for that has offended the little guy so much,” Fetterman added.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
