Mike Rogers renews his rationale for the 9/11-related accusation against Abdul El-Sayed
Mike RogersRepublican candidate for the United States Senate in Michigan
Rogers said El-Sayed could not distance himself from Piker’s language and alleged that El-Sayed had repeatedly declined to disavow Piker. The campaign statement presents this as support for Rogers’s earlier attribution about El-Sayed; it does not independently establish El-Sayed’s beliefs or the underlying claims about Piker.
Responding to
Abdul El-Sayed believes the United States deserved the September 11 attacks.
“He can’t walk away from this, and he said multiple times that he won’t disavow what [Hasan Piker] said.”
Official statement
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
Official statement
About this source
Rogers’s campaign release publishes excerpts it attributes to Rogers’s September 16 Hannity appearance. Rogers alleges that El-Sayed is responsible for Piker’s language because of their association and because, Rogers says, El-Sayed would not disavow Piker. The release does not independently establish the underlying descriptions of Piker’s statements, El-Sayed’s views, or the campaign’s other allegations.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Rogers had previously attributed a belief about the September 11 attacks to El-Sayed. El-Sayed had rejected justifying the attacks and disputed the inference that appearing with Piker meant agreement with him.
After the quotation
The release accompanies excerpts attributed to a Hannity appearance and directs readers to a campaign website. It remains a campaign statement; no independent material in this source establishes its characterizations of El-Sayed or Piker.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Rogers uses El-Sayed’s association with Piker and an asserted refusal to disavow him as a rationale for continuing the earlier attribution. The record classifies that defense of the accusation without treating the underlying attribution as established.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Abdul El-Sayed
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
El-Sayed disavows specific Piker remarks while defending the broader association
“When Hassan made these comments about Jewish Americans and Jewish Michiganders, I disavowed them entirely.”Read statement
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- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Mike Rogers renews his rationale for the 9/11-related accusation against Abdul El-Sayed
- First published
- Last updated
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- https://disputeindex.com/events/1323-rogers-said-el-sayed-could-not-distance-himself
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Mike Rogers renews his rationale for the 9/11-related accusation against Abdul El-Sayed". First published: 2026-09-21. Last updated: 2026-09-21. https://disputeindex.com/events/1323-rogers-said-el-sayed-could-not-distance-himself