{"id":2642594,"date":"2026-08-10T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/el-sayed-disavows-hasan-pikers-controversial-9-11-comments\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:19:07","slug":"el-sayed-disavows-hasan-pikers-controversial-9-11-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/el-sayed-disavows-hasan-pikers-controversial-9-11-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"El Sayed disavows Hasan Piker&#8217;s controversial 9\/11 comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fel-sayed-disavows-hasan-pikers-controversial-9-11-comments%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2642594&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Democratic Michigan Senate candidate abdul el Sayed has publicly disavowed Hasan Piker&#8217;s statement that the U.S. &#8220;deserved&#8221; the 9\/11 terrorist attack, after previously declining to condemn it and campaigning alongside Piker despite controversies over his remarks and alleged antisemitic views. El Sayed emphasized that Piker had disavowed the comment and criticized &#8220;cancel culture&#8221; for scrutinizing out-of-context statements. The controversy highlights tensions within the Democratic Party regarding Piker&#8217;s influence, with some centrists distancing themselves and strategists like James carville expressing strong disapproval, fearing his advocacy for socialism could be a liability. El Sayed also stated his priority is reaching voters and building a coalition to defeat Republican opponent Mike Rogers in Michigan&#8217;s swing state.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic Michigan Senate candidate <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/abdul-el-sayed\/\">Abdul el Sayed<\/a> on Sunday said he disavowed Twitch streamer <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hasan-piker\/\">Hasan Piker\u2019s<\/a> statement that the United States \u201cdeserved\u201d the 9\/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Sayed has attracted controversy for <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4677169\/el-sayed-hasan-piker-michigan-senate-campaign\/\">repeatedly campaigning<\/a> with Piker, an increasingly popular political influencer, over <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheYoungTurks\/videos\/hasan-piker-addresses-online-comments\/2422780581134989\/\">that statement<\/a>, among others. After previously declining to condemn Piker\u2019s 9\/11 comment, el Sayed did so over the weekend, though he suggested calls to distance himself from the rhetoric were reminiscent of cancel culture. <\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680806\/abdul-el-sayed-distances-hasan-piker-controversy-michigan-senate-race\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>El Sayed backs away from Hasan Piker\u2019s controversial takes ahead of general election<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680722\/gavin-newsom-abdul-el-sayed-wingman-michigan\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Newsom becomes el Sayed\u2019s wingman in Michigan with pitch against \u2018extremist\u2019 narrative<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4679585\/chris-murphy-2028-ambitions-tested-connecticut-house-race\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Chris Murphy\u2019s 2028 ambitions face an early test in Connecticut House race<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOf course it was a dumb statement, and of course I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement,\u201d el Sayed said during an NBC News interview. \u201cBut you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves \u2014 to say, \u2018Oh well, what does that mean about what you think?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do, rather than this idea that we\u2019re so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Sayed\u2019s positioning, roughly three months out from the general election, comes after he declined to disavow Piker\u2019s comment earlier in his campaign.\u00a0In April, the Senate candidate <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/el-sayed-hasan-piker-michigan-senate-00863223\">told<\/a> <em>Politico<\/em> he was \u201cnot here to disavow people\u2019s views.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Piker said, \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11\u201d in 2019. The attack by radicalized Islamic jihadists on New York City\u2019s Twin Towers killed nearly 3,000 people. Piker later<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lKQGvVsRpaE&#038;t=43s\"> walked back<\/a> the statement, saying that he \u201cobviously\u201d did not mean it and that \u201cwithin context I was simply referencing the fact that all of the foreign policy decisions and our arming of insurgent groups in the region and our efforts in destabilizing the Middle East have a direct consequence, a boomerang effect, rather if you will, in causing 9\/11.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Sayed\u2019s repeated decision to campaign with Piker has also been controversial due\u00a0 to concerns that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsom-becomes-el-sayeds-wingman-in-michigan\/\" title=\"Newsom becomes ...&#039;s wingman in Michigan\">holds openly antisemitic views<\/a>, including comments in April that he \u201cwould <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jvAN_N2OQJQ\">vote for Hamas<\/a> over Israel every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the NBC interview on Sunday, el Sayed dodged a question on whether he would continue to campaign with Piker in his general election campaign against former Rep. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mike-rogers\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"1022\">Mike Rogers<\/a> (R-MI). The race is expected to be tight, as Michigan is known as a swing state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLook, I\u2019m less concerned now with who I\u2019m campaigning with and a lot more concerned about who I\u2019m campaigning to,\u201d El Sayed said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do to continue to build the coalition that\u2019s going to beat Mike Rogers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think we have this notion sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should not talk to certain groups of people,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll tell you that the 3 million people who listen to Hasan are people I want to make sure understand that there\u2019s a pathway into our politics around getting money out of politics so we can get money back in pockets and pass Medicare for All. And so I\u2019m going to continue to have the conversations with those folks who we desperately need to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More centrist Democrats have distanced themselves from Piker, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who was el Sayed\u2019s top primary opponent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/4676513\/hasan-piker-democrats-joe-rogan-political-liability\/\"><strong>HASAN PIKER BECOMES BOTH A DEMOCRATIC KINGMAKER \u2014 AND POLITICAL LIABILITY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some top Democratic political strategists, such as James Carville, have also expressed concern that some in the party are leaning into Piker, citing concerns over his advocacy for <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/socialism\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"510\">socialism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo talk about the larger Democratic Party, post the election in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/michigan\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"655\">Michigan<\/a> going forward, I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker,\u201d Carville said during a recent Fox News interview. \u201cI have no intention of ever being in the same political party with that guy. Now, I think that a majority \u2014 overwhelming majority of Democrats agree with me, but this idea that we\u2019re going to seize the means of production and this \u2014 just go look at the [Democratic Socialists of America] platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>El Sayed disavows Piker\u2019s 9\/11 comment amid campaign controversy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3142,"featured_media":2642595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220011381098_6a1816.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[83917,50410,44045,81734,77375],"class_list":["post-2642594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-9-11-comments","tag-controversy-2","tag-disavow","tag-el-sayed","tag-hasan-piker"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220011381098_6a1816.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2642594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642598,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642594\/revisions\/2642598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2642595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2642594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2642594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2642594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}