Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s pivotal Senate race, has labored for weeks to push past criticism of his relationship with Hasan Piker, a provocative streamer who campaigned with him during the primary.
Dr. El-Sayed has said he that he disagrees with Mr. Piker on “many, many things,” and that he doesn’t plan to campaign with him this fall. But he has resisted calls to disavow Mr. Piker more fully.
This week, some of those calls grew, after Mr. Piker said the United States had caused more terror than the group that orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks. Dr. El-Sayed swiftly rejected the assertion. And Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan, issued a statement saying that “enough is enough” and called on Dr. El-Sayed to “condemn Piker once and for all.”
It was the latest episode to underscore the challenge Mr. Piker poses for Dr. El-Sayed, whose race could decide control of the Senate. Mr. Piker, who has a huge, young audience, has sway with the sorts of progressives who powered Dr. El-Sayed’s populist primary campaign. But other Democrats, who say they are appalled by some of Mr. Piker’s criticism of the United States and Israel, have pressured Dr. El-Sayed to go further and fully disavow Mr. Piker. And Mr. Rogers has used Mr. Piker’s incendiary commentary to cast Dr. El-Sayed as outside the mainstream and even un-American.
Dr. El-Sayed has said he campaigned with Mr. Piker during the primary because he wanted to reach Mr. Piker’s audience, which Dr. El-Sayed says is alienated from the political process. He has been repeatedly called to answer for Mr. Piker’s most provocative statements.
The latest came in an interview with Axios on Wednesday. Mr. Piker was asked if he continued to believe the United States was the “top dog” in terrorism, a view he has expressed over the years. The interviewer also asked if Mr. Piker believed the country was responsible for more terror than Al Qaeda, which planned the attacks that killed 2,977 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths, yes,” Mr. Piker told Axios. “We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”
Dr. El-Sayed disagreed.
“I do not agree with this statement, nor do I give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer,” Dr. El-Sayed said in a statement, adding that he was more focused on the price of gas, groceries and health care. “As I have said, this campaign speaks for itself.”
In a text message, Mr. Piker wrote that “mainstream outlets focus far too much on me as a way to attack” Dr. El-Sayed. He said he was “totally independent” from Dr. El-Sayed and his campaign. On social media, Mr. Piker also defended his comments to Axios, saying that he had given a “nuanced answer.”
In the Axios interview, Mr. Piker pointed to a U.S. strike that hit an elementary school in Iran in February. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children. A preliminary U.S. investigation determined that the strike on the school was the result of a targeting mistake.
“If you’re killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror,” Mr. Piker said. “This doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists. But the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.”
Mr. Piker has long criticized America’s engagement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians died, calling the conflicts “devastating.”
The race between Dr. El-Sayed and Mr. Rogers, a former congressman and an ally of President Trump, is seen as one of a handful competitive races that could determine Senate control.
For weeks, Mr. Rogers has attacked Dr. El-Sayed over his ties to Mr. Piker.
Dr. El-Sayed campaigned with Mr. Piker in April at rallies on two college campuses. The two also appeared together in final days of the primary race in August, with Mr. Piker joining Dr. El-Sayed’s primary night party in Detroit. Dr. El-Sayed has repeatedly said he has no plans to campaign with Mr. Piker in the general election.
Jewish Democrats, in particular, have been pushing Dr. El-Sayed to disavow to Mr. Piker more forcefully. Mr. Piker is a fierce critic of Israel and has called the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the “direct consequence” of actions by the Israeli and U.S. governments.
A group of Jewish voters in Michigan issued a letter on Wednesday urging support for Dr. El-Sayed. But other Jewish voters have said they are uneasy about his ties to Mr. Piker, and the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus has not endorsed him.
At a debate on Tuesday that Mr. Rogers did not attend, Dr. El-Sayed said he disagreed with many of Mr. Piker’s positions, citing, among other things, “his ridiculous comments about 9/11.” But, he said, “I resist the idea that we should play this cancel culture gotcha game that tells us who we can’t talk to.”
In the past, Mr. Piker said the United States “deserved” the Sept. 11 attacks. He later apologized.
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