Tucker Carlson says El-Sayed is "obviously right" and it is Rogers who is unfit to serve
Tucker CarlsonConservative broadcaster and founder of the Tucker Carlson Network, writing in his own newsletter
In his September 11 newsletter, Tucker Carlson rejected Mike Rogers's characterisation of Abdul El-Sayed's 2021 remarks about the aftermath of September 11, writing that El-Sayed had not celebrated the attacks and was obviously right that the American response amounted to terrorism of its own. Carlson turned Rogers's "unfit to serve" language back on him, said he hoped Michigan voters would keep Rogers "far away from Washington," and had separately said on his podcast that he would not vote for Rogers "at gunpoint."
“El-Sayed did not celebrate airplane hijackings or cheerlead Al-Qaeda; he simply said that the U.S. conducting terrorism of its own in response to 9/11 was not exactly an appropriate reaction. He is obviously right.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Mike Rogers’s 9/11 accusation against Abdul El-Sayed
After Michigan’s August 2026 Senate primary, Mike Rogers asserted that Abdul El-Sayed believed America deserved the September 11 attacks. His campaign defended that accusation by citing El-Sayed’s association with Hasan Piker and reluctance to disavow him. El-Sayed had explicitly rejected justifying 9/11 and argued that appearing with a person did not imply agreement. He described Rogers’s attacks as an effort to divide voters through Islamophobia. Pod Save America hosts Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer later debated the strategy and construction of a related Republican ad without endorsing its factual claims.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Quotes at length from Carlson's own newsletter defending El-Sayed against Mike Rogers's characterisation of his 2021 remarks, and turning the "unfit to serve" charge back on Rogers. Carlson had separately said on his podcast that he would not vote for Rogers "at gunpoint." The underlying newsletter is at tuckercarlson.com/september-11-2026-morning-note; the same passages are reported by MS NOW, HuffPost, USA Today and The Independent.
Before the quotation
The New York Post reported 2021 audio in which El-Sayed said "9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people." Rogers called the remarks "disgusting" and "disqualifying."
After the quotation
Carlson's intervention was widely characterised as an effective endorsement of El-Sayed. Rogers's campaign declined to comment. Carlson is a prominent figure on the political right, which makes this a cross-partisan rejection of the accusation rather than a partisan one.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Carlson rejects that assertion, distinguishes what El-Sayed actually said from celebrating the attacks, and criticises Rogers for making the charge. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, since much of the passage disputes how Rogers described El-Sayed's remarks. That loses because Carlson does not stop at correcting the description; he condemns Rogers's judgment and fitness for office in terms directed at the accusation itself.
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More from this case
Read the full caseAbdul El-Sayed calls Piker’s 9/11 remark “a dumb comment” and rejects its use in the campaign
“It’s a dumb comment. He himself has called it a dumb comment. And they keep bringing it up because all they can talk about is the comment of a guy who has zero power aside from his stream, rather than talk about the guy who has a lot of power to make dumb wars that we’re paying for.”Read statement
El-Sayed disavows Piker's al-Qaeda comparison and says he gives it little weight
“I do not agree with this statement, nor do I give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer. I am more concerned with the dangerous policies of Donald Trump and Mike Rogers that are raising the prices of gas, groceries and healthcare for Michiganders.”Read statement
Mike Rogers renews his rationale for the 9/11-related accusation against Abdul El-Sayed
“He can’t walk away from this, and he said multiple times that he won’t disavow what [Hasan Piker] said.”Read statement
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- Tucker Carlson says El-Sayed is "obviously right" and it is Rogers who is unfit to serve
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The Dispute Index. "Tucker Carlson says El-Sayed is "obviously right" and it is Rogers who is unfit to serve". First published: 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/1065-in-his-september-11-newsletter-tucker-carlson-rejected