Leaked Audio: Dem Senate Candidate Tailors His Khamenei Comments to Avoid Angering Michigan Muslims

Conservative News DailyApril 2, 2026

A look at Michigan’s U.S. Senate race highlights how, in what would normally be a favorable year for Democrats, the contest has become a important headache for the party.

– The seat is open because incumbent Democrat Gary Peters is retiring, with former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers as the likely Republican nominee.

– On the Democratic side, several top contenders would have been strong in a blue-leaning year, but several big-name figures (Gretchen Whitmer, Pete Buttigieg, Debbie Dingell) declined too run, leaving a three-way primary among state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, and Abdul El-Sayed.

– The race is entangled with contentious debates over Israel and perceived Jewish influence, including criticisms of McMorrow for comments about Hasan Piker and controversy over El-Sayed’s stance on Israel and his remarks about Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Pro-Israel endorsements (notably J Street backing McMorrow) and leaked audio from El-Sayed’s staff strategy call have amplified intra-party tensions and polarization.

– The coverage underscores a broader pattern: Democrats are split and navigating heated online rhetoric, media frames, and strategic positioning, all while Michigan’s foothold as a presidential battleground complicates the dynamics.

– the piece argues that Michigan in 2026 reflects deeper fractures within the Democratic Party, making the traditionally winnable seat far more competitive for Republicans than in a typical year.

Of all the Democratic-held Senate seats with the greatest possibility to flip in what would normally be a good year for the left — or at least cause enough of a headache and take up enough resources that it greatly helps the Republicans — Michigan is the second-biggest headache for the Dems, right behind Georgia.

Unlike in Georgia, a generally red state with a feckless former documentarian as the incumbent, the Democrat currently holding the seat in Michigan — Sen. Gary Peters — is retiring. Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is likely to be the GOP nominee, although he does face some nominal opposition.

On the Democratic side, however, there are several problem candidates, all polling within a few points of each other. The big names who would have made the race a shoo-in for the left in a state where Donald Trump won — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell — have declined.

That’s led to a three-way race between state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, and former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed.

This poses a bit of an issue, inasmuch as this brings up the ugliest issue in all of politics in 2026: Israel, and so-called Jewish influence. McMorrow — who led in the last Emerson College poll in January with 22 percent of the vote — has been criticized for saying anti-Semitic streamer and influencer Hasan Piker is “not different from Nick Fuentes” and for being the preferred candidate of Jewish groups. Considering Michigan’s large Muslim community, that’s been exploited by plenty on social media:

Michigan senate candidate Mallory McMorrow says streamer Hasan Piker is “not different from Nick Fuentes”

“He says things that are misogynistic and antisemitic. That is not somebody that you should be campaigning with”

Piker will join campaign rallies with her opponent, Abdul… pic.twitter.com/Ykt8rljAuv

— Popstonox (@Popstonox) March 27, 2026

Pretty obvious McMorrow stands with big money and Israel. The criticism of @hasanthehun is just straight up racism.

It’s also a problem if you want Dems to communicate to podcasters. You gotta be willing to talk to everyone instead of being a tiny club. https://t.co/aOEFe37ulQ

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 27, 2026

SCOOP: J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby group, has endorsed Mallory McMorrow for the U.S. Senate race in Michigan and is encouraging donors to give on their site.

News is tucked into our brand new story on TrackAIPAC: 👇🏽https://t.co/H8JQHvYtlO pic.twitter.com/0fmPyNAeT2

— jonah valdez is @jonahmv.bsky.social (@jonahmv) March 26, 2026

El-Sayed, third in that Emerson poll — but only 6 percentage points behind at 16 percent — seems to be the one to gain from this sentiment. And he’s willing to play it for all its worth.

The day after the evil Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dispatched to his 72 virgins by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, El-Sayed refused to talk about the death of Khamenei, who murdered tens of thousands of his own people, including many Muslims.

In audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and published earlier this week, El-Sayed showed just how far he was willing to go to not condemn the sadistic and mercifully late leader of Iran’s theocratic regime.

During a private strategy call on March 1 with his team, El-Sayed said that he wasn’t going to take a position on it because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about Khamenei’s death, referring to the Detroit suburb that was America’s first majority-Muslim city.

“I’m just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly,” he said, if the media pushed him for a position — an implication that he was going to accuse President Donald Trump of evil crimes committed by someone else, Jeffrey Epstein, instead of showing any resolve and taking a stance.

“I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war,’” he said.

“I’m just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly,” El-Sayed said. “I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.’” pic.twitter.com/jaJLIDAJAu

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 30, 2026

“I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don’t think it’s worth even touching that,” he added.

EXCLUSIVE:

Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told staffers he wanted to avoid taking a public position on the assassination of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad,” audio from a private campaign strategy… pic.twitter.com/DZsFQ3YX6c

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 30, 2026

And even more hilariously? “We have the moral high ground here,” El-Sayed told staff. That’s because the media would “try and bait us into saying, ‘Yeah, but isn’t it justified now that they took [Khamenei] out, right? And I just think, for us, we’ve got to be, like, ‘no.’”

At one point, El-Sayed said, “We have the moral high ground, here,” adding that reporters would “try and bait us into saying, ‘Yeah, but isn’t it justified now that they took [Khamenei] out, right? And I just think, for us, we’ve got to be, like, ‘no.’” pic.twitter.com/uUtgWx2Lxn

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 30, 2026

So, yeah, we now have a fight between someone who calls Hasan Piker an anti-Semite because he is, and someone who thinks he has the “moral high ground here” if he frames it as “pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.” Six of one, half-dozen of the other, as far as the Democrats are concerned!

Again, in any normal year, Michigan shouldn’t be a worry for Democrats, even though Trump has won the state two out of three presidential elections and the GOP has come closer to taking Senate seats there. But this isn’t a normal year, because this isn’t a normal party. The fact that Abdul El-Sayed can claim any high ground while the left attacks someone who attacks anti-Semites is proof of that.