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Public disputes concerning Israel, its government, institutions, policies, security, and international relations.
Counts show individual statements. They do not assign an overall position.
2 statements on this page. Dates: September 10, 2026
2 matching statements. Dates: September 10, 2026
2 published statements. Dates: September 10, 2026
Role at the time: Republican U.S. Senate nominee speaking at the party's September 10 convention
Response to this claim
El-Sayed's cycle-of-violence framing rationalized the antisemitic attack or improperly shifted explanatory responsibility toward Israel and Jews.
“And Abdul's instinct was to excuse it.”
The campaign publishes the complete speech text and links its full recording at https://youtu.be/caqS8edf8p4. The selected wording was checked against the published text, not independently transcribed from the video. Rogers attributes the 9/11-deserved sentiment to Piker and criticizes El-Sayed's association with him; his running-mate language is rhetorical. A separate passage renews the accusation that El-Sayed excused the Temple Israel attack. The transcript also includes Rogers’s separate campaign-finance allegation; it establishes that Rogers made the statement but does not identify a donor, amount, or supporting campaign-finance filing. The source publication timestamp is verified from the campaign page metadata; it is not the speech's recording time.
The selected passage directly condemns El-Sayed's explanation of the synagogue attack. It records Rogers's interpretation, not a finding that El-Sayed approved the attack.
Role at the time: Michigan Republican Senate nominee
Statement summary
At the September 2026 GOP midterm convention, Mike Rogers escalated his criticism of El-Sayed's Temple Israel "cycle of violence" framing to a national stage, calling him a "conman" who sympathizes with terrorism.
“Michigan needs a senator fighting for the victims. You don't sympathize with terrorists. You don't sanitize extremism... He's a conman. I'm a lawman. He wants to apologize for America. I want to defend America.”
WSJ live-blog card from the Sept. 10, 2026 GOP midterm convention in Dallas, quoting Rogers's escalated Temple Israel/"cycle of violence" criticism of El-Sayed on a national stage.
Rogers directly and sharply condemns El-Sayed's Temple Israel framing as sympathizing with and sanitizing terrorism, escalating his existing position to a national convention stage with new, sharper language.
