Condemned
“If you're having a moral crisis over whether to condemn terrorism, you're unfit for office.”
Rogers accused El-Sayed of failing to offer an adequate condemnation of terrorism.
- Speaker
- Mike Rogers
- Capacity
- Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan
- Observed
- March 24, 2026
- Published here
- September 5, 2026
- Targets
- Abdul El-Sayed
- Classification rationale
- The statement treats El-Sayed's contextualization as disqualifying sympathy for the assailant.
Surrounding material
Full context
Before the quotation
Jewish Insider reported El-Sayed's internal campaign remarks about the political risk of his response.
After the quotation
Rogers used the controversy to argue that El-Sayed was unfit for office.
Evidence
Complete source record
Abdul El-Sayed calls statement on Temple Israel attack a risk (opens in a new tab)Full report
Reports El-Sayed's internal campaign call and attributable reactions from Mike Rogers and Tim Scott.