Debbie Dingell
Role at the time: U.S. Representative for Michigan's 6th congressional district, interviewed on CNN
Statement summary
Asked on CNN whether Abdul El-Sayed needed to do more to distance himself from Hasan Piker after the Axios interview, Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell said she was sick of talking about Piker and wanted him to go away, and questioned why he gave the interview. She agreed with part of what he said, calling the bombing of the school in Iran horrific and saying the United States should not be in the war in Iran, while distancing herself from his other positions: she said Israel has a right to exist and called things he has said about women horrific. She said the election is about El-Sayed rather than Piker, urged Piker to stop going on television if he wants El-Sayed elected, and said El-Sayed must make clear he does not agree with what Piker has said.
“I'm so sick of talking about Hasan Piker and I want Hasan Piker to go away. I don't know why he had to do that interview. … The bombing of the school in Iran was horrific. We shouldn't be in the war in Iran. … This election is about Abdul El-Sayed, not Hasan Piker. … If he wants to see Abdul El-Sayed elected, stop going on television. Abdul has got to make it clear that he does not agree with the things that he has said.”
CNN political programming segment of September 17, 2026, in which Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan is asked whether Abdul El-Sayed needs to do more to distance himself from Hasan Piker after Piker's Axios interview. The segment separately reports that El-Sayed told CNN's Manu Raju, before the interview clip published, that he would not campaign with Piker in the general election, having done so in the primary. Quotations are taken from CNN's broadcast closed captions, which render proper nouns correctly but are delivered in rolling form.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Dingell combines materially different responses to it. She endorses part of the basis he gave — that the Iran school strike was horrific and that the United States should not be in that war — while declining to accept the comparison itself and rejecting his positions on Israel and on women, and she presses El-Sayed to disavow him. The closest competing label is “Explicitly stayed out”, given her repeated wish that everyone stop talking about Piker; it loses because she engages with the substance before redirecting, and the guidance is to evaluate the answer given rather than the closing redirect. condemns also loses, because she never rejects the comparison on the merits.