El-Sayed tells Meet the Press that America didn't deserve 9/11 and calls the Piker question gotcha politics
Abdul El-SayedDemocratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan
Asked on Meet the Press whether he disavowed Hasan Piker's comment that America deserved 9/11, El-Sayed called it a dumb statement, said Piker had disavowed it, and said America did not deserve 9/11. He called questions tying him to the remark gotcha politics and cancel culture.
Responding to
Abdul El-Sayed believes the United States deserved the September 11 attacks.
“Of course. Of course it was a dumb statement. And, of course, I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So, yes, America didn't deserve 9/11. But, you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves to say, oh, well, what does that mean about what you think?”
Original video
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
Original video
About this source
NBC News published the full Meet the Press interview with Abdul El-Sayed on August 9, 2026, after his Michigan Democratic Senate primary win. Interviewer Kristen Welker asked about his campaign appearances with Hasan Piker and Piker's 2019 remark about 9/11.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Welker asked whether El-Sayed would keep campaigning with Piker, and he said he was more focused on who he was campaigning to. She then said Sen. Bernie Sanders had called Piker's 9/11 comments a dumb statement and asked whether El-Sayed agreed and disavowed them.
After the quotation
El-Sayed said he wanted to be held accountable for what he says and does, and compared the questioning to cancel culture.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is Rogers's accusation that El-Sayed believes America deserved the 9/11 attacks. El-Sayed states the opposite belief and rejects the practice of judging him by a remark Piker made, which disputes the attribution. We used Challenged the characterization. Condemned is close, but here he rejects the inference from Piker's remark rather than denouncing Rogers or the attack ads. We checked the quote against the audio of NBC's published interview.
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- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Mike Rogers, Hasan Piker
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
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The Dispute Index. "El-Sayed tells Meet the Press that America didn't deserve 9/11 and calls the Piker question gotcha politics". First published: 2026-10-06. Last updated: 2026-10-06. https://disputeindex.com/events/4780-asked-on-meet-the-press-whether-he-disavowed