Tom Cotton posts that El-Sayed proudly said America deserved 9/11
Tom CottonU.S. Senator from Arkansas (Republican), in a post on X
Sen. Tom Cotton wrote on X that Senate Democrats were excited for Abdul El-Sayed, who he said had proudly said America deserved 9/11. HuffPost reported that Cotton later edited the post to say El-Sayed proudly campaigns with extremists who say it.
“Senate Democrats are ‘excited’ for Abdul El-Sayed who proudly said America deserved 9/11”
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
HuffPost report, published August 6, 2026, on Sen. Tom Cotton's August 5 post about El-Sayed and its later edit. It quotes the post directly and gives the background on Hasan Piker's 2019 remark.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Cotton was responding to a post by Sen. Chris Murphy saying he was excited about El-Sayed's victory over Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary, according to HuffPost.
After the quotation
HuffPost reported that Cotton appeared to have mistaken El-Sayed for Hasan Piker, who said "America deserved 9/11" in a 2019 Twitch broadcast and later called the remark inappropriate. It also reported that Cotton updated his post to say El-Sayed "proudly campaigns with extremists who say America deserved 9/11."
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case centers on Mike Rogers's accusation that El-Sayed believed America deserved the September 11 attacks. Cotton's post makes the same attribution in his own words, so it backs that accusation. We labeled it Defended or excused, as we did for the other speakers who back the accusation.
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- People and groups discussed
- Abdul El-Sayed
More from this case
Read the full caseTrump tells Michigan to fight El-Sayed "just like Todd did" on Flight 93
“Twenty-five years later, Michigan needs to stand up and fight, just like Todd did, to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol”Read statement
Abdul 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
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The Dispute Index. "Tom Cotton posts that El-Sayed proudly said America deserved 9/11". First published: 2026-09-30. Last updated: 2026-09-30. https://disputeindex.com/events/3361-sen-tom-cotton-wrote-on-x-that-senate