Rogers says he is running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11
Mike RogersRepublican nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, issuing an official campaign statement
Rogers attributed support for the idea that America deserved 9/11 to El-Sayed and used it to argue that his opponent was an extremist.
Responding to
Abdul El-Sayed believes the United States deserved the September 11 attacks.
“Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11.”
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
Complete campaign statement. The accusation concerns El-Sayed’s supposed belief; it does not supply a quotation from him endorsing the attacks. Rogers’s campaign subsequently defended the inference by pointing to El-Sayed’s association with Hasan Piker. Other allegations in the release are outside this case.
Before the quotation
The campaign release followed the Michigan primary and criticized El-Sayed across multiple policy areas.
After the quotation
The release did not quote El-Sayed endorsing the attacks. His campaign’s later explanation relied on association and reluctance to disavow Piker, which must be distinguished from El-Sayed’s own recorded denial.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case records the competing argument as whether declining to disavow an ally warrants an adverse inference about a candidate's judgment or beliefs. Rogers is the author of the accusation and states it in its strongest form, presenting it as an established belief of his opponent rather than an inference. That is the clearest possible assertion of the proposition under scrutiny. The closest competing label is condemns, which this record previously carried; it loses because condemns marks rejection of the accusation, and Rogers is making it. Relabelled from condemns in a September 17 audit: condemns was being carried both by the speakers making this accusation and by those attacking it, so the label was doing opposite work on one conduct under scrutiny. Speakers who assert or support the accusation are now classified “Defended or excused”, matching Alyssa Brouillet (433) and John Fetterman (974); speakers who criticise it, including El-Sayed (434, 509, 512), Cole Wozniak (459) and Jon Favreau (437), keep condemns.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- 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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- Rogers says he is running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11
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The Dispute Index. "Rogers says he is running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11". First published: 2026-09-11. Last updated: 2026-09-25. https://disputeindex.com/events/432-rogers-attributed-support-for-the-idea-that-america