Rogers spokesperson cites El-Sayed's refusal to disavow Piker's comments
Alyssa BrouilletSpokesperson for Mike Rogers’s U.S. Senate campaign
Brouillet defended Rogers’s accusation by pointing to El-Sayed’s refusal to disavow Piker’s comments.
Responding to
Abdul El-Sayed believes the United States deserved the September 11 attacks.
“Abdul was asked point blank if he’d disavow Hasan Piker’s comments, and he wouldn’t do it.”
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
Original reporting includes the campaign’s response to a request for its evidence. Brouillet’s statement is a direct quotation from that exchange, not an inference from silence. The report distinguishes El-Sayed’s explicit rejection of justifying 9/11 from his refusal to disavow an ally. We record that distinction without adopting PolitiFact’s rating as the case’s purpose.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
PolitiFact asked the Rogers campaign to substantiate the accusation; its source list dates the email exchange to August 6.
After the quotation
The report contrasted this rationale with El-Sayed’s explicit rejection of justifying 9/11. The private email itself is not reproduced in the public source; its attributed quotation is original interview reporting.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
She supplied the campaign’s rationale for the accusation in a direct response to a request for evidence.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Abdul El-Sayed
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- Rogers spokesperson cites El-Sayed's refusal to disavow Piker's comments
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The Dispute Index. "Rogers spokesperson cites El-Sayed's refusal to disavow Piker's comments". First published: 2026-09-11. Last updated: 2026-09-17. https://disputeindex.com/events/433-brouillet-defended-rogers-s-accusation-by-pointing-to