Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, blasted Democratic rival Abdul El-Sayed as sympathetic to terrorists and more interested in representing Palestinians in Congress than the state.
"He's a con man. I'm a law man," said Rogers, of White Lake, who was an FBI agent before entering politics and serving in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2015, during a 10-minute speech before the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 10.
Speaking on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rogers criticized El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat and former health director for Detroit and Wayne County, for having campaigned with Internet influencer Hasan Piker, who some years
ago suggested America brought the attacks on itself, though he later disavowed those remarks. El-Sayed hasn't split with Piker since winning the nomination but he has denounced the earlier comments by Piker as "dumb."
Rogers also invoked the memory of a native Michigander, Todd Beamer, who was on Flight 93 when passengers confronted hijackers in an attempt to take back control of the plane, one of four that were hijacked on 9/11. Beamer, after calling his family, memorably was heard telling other passengers, "Let's roll," before the plane crashed in western Pennsylvania. Two other planes brought down the World Trade Center and another struck the Pentagon on a day when some 3,000 people died.
"September 11th isn't something we deserved no matter what Abdul's buddies say," said Rogers, adding that the terrorist attack showed how important secure borders and a strong military are to America. "Let’s get to work America," he added, "Let's roll."
Throughout the unusual two-day convention ahead of midterm elections, which was called for by Republican President Donald Trump, various politicians and office-seekers have invoked El-Sayed as a symbol for a Democratic Party moving toward the left, with several of them calling him and the Democrats "communists."
On Sept. 9, during a two-hour-long speech, Trump blasted El-Sayed but made several specious claims about himwhich were either false, misleading or lacked important context.
Rogers, a former chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, was more circumspect about his claims, saying he knows "what happens when America is afraid to call evil by its name" and said El-Sayed and Piker "treat our country like it’s a villain."
He also pointed to El-Sayed's initial comments regarding a foiled attack on a synagogue at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township in March where a security guard was injured and more than 100 children were present. El-Sayed, who has been sharply critical of U.S. support for Israel in its treatment of Palestinians and as it waged a counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza, denounced violence — as he has repeatedly — but also said "hurt people hurt people," which critics took as suggesting some justification for the attack.
El-Sayed later said the comment was inappropriate at the time.
"A man attacks a school to kill children in the name of Hezbollah (a Lebanese political party and paramilitary organization considered a terrorist group by the U.S.) and Abdul's instinct was to excuse it," Rogers said. "No, terror is terror. Evil is evil... You don't sympathize with terrorists."
El-Sayed, who has never won elected office before, and Rogers are caught in a tight race for the Senate seat with control of the chamber potentially on the line for either party. Rogers, who lost a narrow race two years ago for the Senate to Democratic then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, has focused on branding El-Sayed as out-of-step with Michigan voters.
El-Sayed is a proponent of government health care for all Americans and disbanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying Trump has militarized it, and has tried to focus on Rogers' support of Trump's agenda, his support from health care and pharmaceutical companies in the past, as well as persistently high inflation since Trump entered office again in 2025 and an unpopular war with Iran, which has forced up gas prices.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mike Rogers says El-Sayed sympathizes with terrorists in convention speech
