El-Sayed campaign says he has always unequivocally condemned the September 11 attacks
Cole WozniakSpokesperson responding on behalf of Abdul El-Sayed's U.S. Senate campaign
In a September 10 statement reported by The Detroit News, campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said El-Sayed had consistently condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks, rejecting Rogers's portrayal of his beliefs.
“has always unequivocally condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks.”
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
Complete original reporting dated September 10, displaying an update time of 8:15 p.m. Eastern. Only the calendar publication date is asserted. The reporter explicitly dates Cole Wozniak's campaign statement September 10. His reply is recorded in his campaign-spokesperson capacity, not as a personal quotation by El-Sayed. The report also preserves El-Sayed's earlier rejection of justifying 9/11; that earlier context is not a newly made response.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
The Detroit News reported Rogers's convention criticism and El-Sayed's previous rejection of the idea that the September 11 attacks were justified. It explicitly identified Wozniak's reply as a September 10 statement.
After the quotation
Wozniak accused Rogers of misrepresenting El-Sayed's beliefs. The campaign also raised Rogers's votes concerning benefits for September 11 responders, which are separate from the selected response.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The very next attributed sentence calls the attack bad-faith lies meant to mislead voters. The complete reply directly condemns campaign conduct, beyond correcting the belief attributed to El-Sayed.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Mike Rogers
Corrections to this statement
These notices document reporting corrections, classification changes, and topic-label updates.
Classification correction
Correction to: Statement by Cole Wozniak
- Previous classification
- Challenges the characterization. The campaign explicitly disputes Rogers's characterization. The quotation is a sentence fragment whose subject, El-Sayed, is supplied by the reporter's surrounding sentence; it is not a verbatim personal statement by El-Sayed.
- Corrected classification
- Condemns. The very next attributed sentence calls the attack bad-faith lies meant to mislead voters. The complete reply directly condemns campaign conduct, beyond correcting the belief attributed to El-Sayed.
We corrected the editorial classification of Cole Wozniak's response about Rogers’s alleged misrepresentation of El-Sayed’s beliefs. The very next attributed sentence calls the attack bad-faith lies meant to mislead voters. The complete reply directly condemns campaign conduct, beyond correcting the belief attributed to El-Sayed. This corrects our labeling, not a later change in the speaker's position.
This corrects an editorial classification.
Complete original reporting dated September 10, displaying an update time of 8:15 p.m. Eastern. Only the calendar publication date is asserted. The reporter explicitly dates Cole Wozniak's campaign statement September 10. His reply is recorded in his campaign-spokesperson capacity, not as a personal quotation by El-Sayed. The report also preserves El-Sayed's earlier rejection of justifying 9/11; that earlier context is not a newly made response.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)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
Mike Rogers renews his rationale for the 9/11-related accusation against Abdul El-Sayed
“He can’t walk away from this, and he said multiple times that he won’t disavow what [Hasan Piker] said.”Read statement
Share or embed this statement
The embed keeps its attribution link to The Dispute Index. Credit the image to The Dispute Index and link to the statement page.
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- El-Sayed campaign says he has always unequivocally condemned the September 11 attacks
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/459-in-a-september-10-statement-reported-by-the
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "El-Sayed campaign says he has always unequivocally condemned the September 11 attacks". First published: 2026-09-11. Last updated: 2026-09-25. https://disputeindex.com/events/459-in-a-september-10-statement-reported-by-the