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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is facing scrutiny after audio surfaced of him telling staff he wanted to avoid commenting on the killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because \u201ca lot\u201d of constituents in the majority-Muslim city of Dearborn, Michigan, would be upset.<\/p>\n
The comments from El-Sayed, a leftist Muslim running for the open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, were published Monday by the Washington Free Beacon<\/a>. During a call<\/a> with his communications team on March 1, just one day after President Donald Trump launched \u201cOperation Epic Fury,\u201d El-Sayed laid out his strategy for addressing the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don\u2019t want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth even touching that,\u201d El-Sayed said.<\/p>\n Michigan holds one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in the United States, with the vast majority residing in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit. Dearborn became the first majority-Muslim city in the United States in 2023. The city recently drew national attention after a resident rammed his vehicle into a synagogue and was killed in a shootout, reportedly after Israeli strikes killed members of his family.<\/p>\n In the conversation,\u00a0El-Sayed acknowledged that Khamenei was a \u201cbad man\u201d but condemned the U.S. strike.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that he was a bad man does not justify our breaking of international law and unilateral action outside of wartime,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a bigger question about the United States\u2019 responsibility to international law, and we have been breaking it wantonly.\u201d<\/p>\n In a mock unfriendly interview, one of El-Sayed\u2019s staffers asked him if he believes the United States is \u201cauthorized to pursue further action\u201d after Iran launched missile attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East. In response, the leftist Democrat painted the United States and Israel as the aggressors.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t forget what started this,\u201d he said. \u201cThe United States and Israel attacked first. So now, you have another country retaliating in what you would expect them to do when they\u2019re attacked. And now we\u2019re going to back-justify the thing that we did to start the war in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n At another point in the call, El-Sayed also floated a strategy to avoid addressing the Iran war directly if he was asked by reporters to comment on the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to go straight to pedophilia, frankly. I\u2019ll just be like, \u2018Pedophile president decides that he doesn\u2019t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war,’\u201d he added.<\/p>\n While prepping his response to the Iran war, El-Sayed also shifted his focus to criticizing Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly, this [war] doesn\u2019t actually benefit the United States. You know who it benefits? It benefits Israel, who has captured too many of our politicians through AIPAC contributions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Daily Wire reached out to El-Sayed\u2019s campaign, seeking comment.<\/p>\n El-Sayed\u2019s legal team told the Free Beacon that the audio from the internal staff meeting \u201cwas obtained without the campaign\u2019s permission, and without knowledge that individuals were being recorded.\u201d David Mitrani, of the Sandler Reiff law firm, added, \u201cThe campaign is considering its legal options against the individual in question,\u201d according to the Free Beacon.<\/p>\n El-Sayed is in a tight race with two other Democrats for the 2026 Senate nomination and has positioned himself as the most progressive choice for Democrats in the primary. El-Sayed boasts endorsements from democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and is advocating for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished.<\/p>\n During his 2026 Senate campaign, El-Sayed has been in hot water over comments he has made on Israel. Last October, the Democrat sent a fundraising email<\/a> on the two-year anniversary of Hamas\u2019 brutal terrorist attack on Israel, but the email made no mention of Hamas\u2019 atrocities and blamed Israel for launching \u201ca ground invasion of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with The Daily Wire earlier this year, El-Sayed said the email that went out on the anniversary of the October 7 attack was supposed to be sent on a different day, but he added that he still supported the main message of the email.<\/p>\n \u201cIt went out, and I very quickly reached out to leaders in the Jewish community to apologize for having stepped on their grief,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThe message in the email is something I stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n