El-Sayed criticizes Rogers’s use of 9/11 in campaign rhetoric
Abdul El-SayedU.S. Senate candidate, through campaign statement
In a campaign release, El-Sayed criticized Rogers for invoking 9/11 in campaign rhetoric while, in El-Sayed’s characterization, opposing health care for people who responded to the attacks. The release linked that criticism to reporting on Rogers’s congressional voting record.
“This is somebody who—when he thinks it’s politically useful for him—wants to invoke the memory of 9/11.”
Official statement
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
Official statement
About this source
Campaign release responding to Mike Rogers’s 9/11-focused rhetoric. It attributes the quoted criticism to Abdul El-Sayed and links its health-care-voting argument to contemporaneous reporting. It is a campaign statement, not independent verification of its characterizations.
Reporting
About this source
The report links congressional vote records for Rogers to arguments over 9/11 first-responder benefits and includes the Rogers campaign’s response. It reports allegations by John Feal separately and should not be used to treat those allegations as established fact.
Before the quotation
Rogers had repeatedly invoked El-Sayed’s association with Hasan Piker and Piker’s 2019 9/11 remarks in the Michigan Senate campaign.
After the quotation
The campaign release followed reporting on Rogers’s votes concerning first-responder and survivor benefits. The release’s criticism does not itself establish the broader allegations it discusses.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
El-Sayed’s statement directly criticizes Rogers’s conduct and political use of the 9/11 attacks. The record attributes the health-care characterization to El-Sayed’s campaign and keeps the vote reporting separate.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Mike Rogers
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Abdul El-Sayed calls Piker’s 9/11 remark “a dumb comment” and rejects its use in the campaign
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- The Dispute Index
- Title
- El-Sayed criticizes Rogers’s use of 9/11 in campaign rhetoric
- First published
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- https://disputeindex.com/events/509-in-a-campaign-release-el-sayed-criticized-rogers
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "El-Sayed criticizes Rogers’s use of 9/11 in campaign rhetoric". First published: 2026-09-13. Last updated: 2026-09-13. https://disputeindex.com/events/509-in-a-campaign-release-el-sayed-criticized-rogers