Rogers says El-Sayed is platforming someone who believes America deserved 9/11
Mike RogersRepublican nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan
Responding to El-Sayed's criticism of his House votes on 9/11 aid, Rogers said the suggestion that he does not support the victims was false and that he had pushed for an annual $150 million appropriation. He said El-Sayed was using the issue to distract from platforming someone who believes America deserved 9/11.
Responding to
Abdul El-Sayed believes the United States deserved the September 11 attacks.
“It’s disqualifying that Conman Abdul is using Washington speak about the help Congress provided victims and their families to distract from how he’s platforming someone who believes “America deserved 9/11.””
Original post
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 post
About this source
Rogers posted this after El-Sayed criticized his House votes on aid for 9/11 first responders. CBS News cited the post on September 11, 2026.
Before the quotation
El-Sayed had criticized Rogers for voting against the 2010 James Zadroga Act, which funded health care for 9/11 first responders. Rogers's post opens by calling 9/11 one of the worst days in American history.
After the quotation
The post ends with the quoted sentence. The same day, Rogers spoke at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where he again tied El-Sayed to Piker.
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. Here Rogers keeps the accusation's basis, El-Sayed's association with Piker, and repeats it as a reason El-Sayed is unfit. That backs the accusation, so we used Defended or excused. Challenged the characterization fits only his rebuttal about his own 9/11 votes, which is a separate dispute. The quote is from his own X post.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Abdul El-Sayed, 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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- Rogers says El-Sayed is platforming someone who believes America deserved 9/11
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The Dispute Index. "Rogers says El-Sayed is platforming someone who believes America deserved 9/11". First published: 2026-10-06. Last updated: 2026-10-06. https://disputeindex.com/events/4781-responding-to-el-sayed-s-criticism-of-his