Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed honed in on President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran during a campaign speech Tuesday, donning him the moniker of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “dumba**.”
“Why are we there? There is one country that benefits. One,” El Sayed told supporters at a Michigan State University event while stumping with controversial left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. “Benjamin Netanyahu has been talking about taking a war to Iran for 40 years and finally found a dumba**.”
The remarks from El Sayed, a progressive former Detroit health official in one of the country’s most closely watched battleground races, came roughly an hour before Trump agreed to suspend bombing Iran for two weeks.
Trump initially threatened to wage a bombing campaign against Iranian civilian infrastructure later that evening but agreed to a two-week ceasefire as the countries work toward a long-term peace agreement. Trump posted to Truth Social that, subject to Iran “agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING” of the Strait of Hormuz so oil tankers can again traverse the region, “I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.
“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!” Trump wrote. “The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
Israel, which has waged an airstrike campaign against Iran in collaboration with the United States, also agreed to a ceasefire.
El Sayed stumping with Piker has created a political headache for Democrats as the party debates whether to associate with the influencer who once said that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker gained notoriety as a Twitch streamer and now has a large following online. More recently, he’s become a surrogate for Democrats, particularly progressive candidates such as El Sayed, in the midterm elections and has hosted lawmakers on his stream.
El Sayed is battling Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and State Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the Democratic nomination to take on presumptive Republican nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers. The toss-up seat is being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).
DEMOCRATS SQUIRM AS THE LEFT EMBRACES CONTROVERSIAL STREAMER HASAN PIKER
El Sayed told rally-goers he was “proud” to be labeled a “dangerous” candidate by the largest pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Every dollar that he spends over there, drop a bomb over there on a child over there, is a dollar that’s not being spent here on your child, here on your school, here on your healthcare,” El Sayed, who is Muslim and Arab, said. “People love to say, ‘Oh, it’s because he’s Arab and Muslim.’ No, it’s because I’m f***ing from Michigan.”
