Daniel Samet is an American foreign-policy analyst and historian. He is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, focusing on U.S.-Israel relations and Middle East policy, and the author of U.S. Defense Policy toward Israel: A Cold War History (2025). He previously served as a foreign-policy fellow in the office of Sen. Tom Cotton.
Case
AEI’s Daniel Samet tells Fox News that Abdul El-Sayed’s associations show sympathy for terrorist causes and that he would “empower” America’s enemies in the Senate. Mehdi Hasan calls the coverage “disgusting anti-Muslim bigotry.”
Role at the time: Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, quoted in Fox News Digital
Statement summary
Quoted in a Fox News Digital article on Abdul El-Sayed’s eligibility for classified access if elected, Daniel Samet of the American Enterprise Institute said, “Anyone refusing to disavow America-hater Hasan Piker should never be elected to Congress. El-Sayed will use his perch in the Senate to undermine America and empower its enemies.” The article reported that Samet argued El-Sayed has associated with people who support the intifada and terrorist causes and shown sympathy for radical Islamist ideology.
“Anyone refusing to disavow America-hater Hasan Piker should never be elected to Congress. El-Sayed will use his perch in the Senate to undermine America and empower its enemies.”
Samet makes the characterization himself and presents it as fact, saying El-Sayed will “undermine America and empower its enemies” because of his associations. That defends and presses the characterization rather than merely reporting it. The closest competing label is mixed_or_conditional; it loses because Samet states his conclusion (that El-Sayed should not be elected) without qualification.
Statement dates: September 20, 2026
Statement dates: September 20, 2026
Statement dates: September 20, 2026
