El-Sayed Stumbles in Michigan Senate Debate With Mike Rogers
Rogers was ready with a response: “He owns a home in the United Arab Emirates. At least Florida is in the United States.”
Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers faced off against his controversial Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, in Grand Rapids on Thursday night. NexStar/NewsNation sponsored the debate, and WOOD-TV 8 political reporter Rick Albin moderated it.
By the end of the evening, it had become clear that one candidate had the bearing of a statesman, the other, the swagger of a whippersnapper. Suffice it to say, it was not a good night for El-Sayed.
Throughout the campaign, El-Sayed has incessantly reminded voters that Rogers owns a home in Florida, and he raised the issue again during the debate. Rogers was ready with a response: “He owns a home in the United Arab Emirates. At least Florida is in the United States.”
Rogers’s remark likely hit harder after clips from 2016 resurfaced this week showing El-Sayed claiming to hold dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship.
Abdul El-Sayed tries to hit Mike Rogers for owning a home in Florida.
Rogers: “He owns a home in the United Arab Emirates. At least Florida is in the United States” pic.twitter.com/uUohQw4l0l
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 9, 2026
Confronted by Rogers over his failure to acknowledge the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, El-Sayed offered the weak excuse that he was giving “people space to grieve.” He claimed his opponent was turning the issue into political theatre.
As Rogers recounted the atrocities Hamas committed against Jewish civilians that day, El-Sayed repeatedly interrupted, insisting he would not make “political theatre” out of other people’s pain.
MIKE ROGERS JUST ENDED ABDUL'S NIGHT.
At tonight's debate, Rogers called out El-Sayed for not even acknowledging October 7th on its anniversary.
Abdul's answer was that he "gave people space to grieve" and that Rogers was turning it into political theater.
Rogers fired right… https://t.co/oCH93bKnql
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 8, 2026
El-Sayed was asked if he “would vote to provide defensive weapons to protect the Israeli people. Yes or no?
He refused to answer the question, arguing instead that he wants “our tax dollars spent here” on schools and healthcare “here.” He added, snidely and obnoxiously, “and by here I mean Michigan, not Florida.”
He continued, “Let’s be honest about what happened here. Israel has pushed us to go to war in Iran. … And their war aims were what, the annexation of Southern Lebanon?” What a ludicrous statement.
Pointing at Rogers, El-Sayed said, “He wants unconditional support for a foreign government. I want unconditional support for kids in our schools … for our child care, health care, things that he would vote to defund.”
Then it was Roger’s turn: “If there was an attack, would you provide defensive weapons for Israel?
El-Sayed doubled down: “I don’t want our tax dollars buying weapons for other countries. I don’t know what’s so hard about that.”
Rogers shot back, “That’s a no. I’ll answer the question. He won’t. He would not even support the Iron Dome.”
Conservative analyst Joe Concha noted on X, “Even Van Jones says this is batsh** crazy.”
Not even for defensive weapons like the Iron Dome? Even Van Jones says this is batshit crazy. https://t.co/5TkxHySBHz
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) October 9, 2026
El-Sayed also refused to provide an answer when asked whether Israel or Iran poses a greater risk to the U.S., calling the question “ridiculous and hypothetical.” His response was a clear misstep.
One X user noted, “After tonight debate, El-Sayed’s support among Jewish democrats will probably go from 30% to 10%.”
Suffice it to say he did terrible?
— Bob (@FourtotheBoards) October 8, 2026
In the wake of the Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed debate, @PeterMeijer on CNN NewsNight calls out El-Sayed:
“I can't understand how somebody who's that politically smart has not fixed their position is when he was asked who's the greater danger to America, Israel or Iran.
Three… pic.twitter.com/ZHsg5QMNeO
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 9, 2026
In the clip below, Rogers ridicules El-Sayed for lying about being a physician. “Well, he’s not really a doctor. … As a matter of fact, if somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail.”
Abdual citizen El-Sayed gets irritated when Michigan Mike calls him out for lying about being a doctor. pic.twitter.com/XpnsMlJ4f6
— Democrats For Mike Rogers (@DemsForMike) October 8, 2026
In another exchange, Rogers insinuated that El-Sayed’s mother worked for Al-Qaeda. Rogers then clarified his remark saying that “she worked for an organization that was funneling money” to the terrorist group.
“Are you going after my mom?” El-Sayed asks Rogers.
Mike Rogers slams Abdul because his mom cashed checks for Bin Laden.
Mike’s mom worked at the chamber of commerce, and Abdul’s mom worked for Al-Qaeda. pic.twitter.com/FCgqDZ3ox5
— Great Lakes HQ (@GreatLakes_HQ) October 8, 2026
In other remarks, Rogers said:
He lied about being a physician. He lied now about being an Egyptian citizen. I can’t figure out what he is!
He’s taken money from groups associated [with and support[ed by] the Muslim Brotherhood. He has taken money from individuals on his campaign who openly support Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda. From the George Soros family.
X account Red Wave Press summed up the showdown best: “Mike Rogers takes Abdul El-Sayed to the WOOD CHIPPER.” It appears that true.
Frankly, I’ve never understood how any Jewish voter could support El-Sayed, given his documented history of antisemitic rhetoric. But his refusal to say whether Iran — whose leaders bear responsibility for the killing and maiming of Americans — or Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, pose the greater threat to the U.S., may cost him some of that support.
In my view, El-Sayed did his campaign more harm than good last night. Rogers’s composure stood in sharp contrast to his opponent’s bluster, and El-Sayed’s evasions did little to inspire confidence. Whether that contrast will move votes remains to be seen.
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Comments
Summary by Paula:
Muslim with little or no understanding or appreciation of the nation he claims he wants to serve charges ahead and shows that he is a fool.
Debates shift very few votes. idiot leftists will still vote against themselves.
But, there are no shortage of communist idiots that would gladly vote for him.
I would love to be wrong about this but I’ll be shocked if I am:
Al Sayed even showing up for a debate is just a sign of his hubris. He’s a typical leftist who is convinced he’s always the smartest guy in the room. He thought he’d show up and expose Rogers as a dolt, never considering the fact that he might actually do the same to himself.
The fact is that this is Michigan. Home of Detroit. The land where the poll workers cover up the windows with paper so observers can’t watch them creating…er…counting – yea, that’s it – counting the “votes”.
He doesn’t need to convince the voters of anything. He could pull a Talarico and and disappear for the rest of the campaign, or a Biden and hide in his basement for the duration because he knows full well that the machine in Michigan is prepared and ready to create however many votes they need to put him over the top.
The headlines are already written and just need to be released “Historic Michigan mid-term turnout sees Democrat win amongst the highest number of votes cast in Michigan political history.”
Sort of how like Basement Biden received more votes in history including Obama’s vote totals in either of his elections.
“Al Sayed even showing up for a debate is just a sign of his hubris.”
That is definitely a sign. And it is obvious that he thinks he’s smarter than he is.
I hope you are wrong, but wouldn’t bet on it. Hell, I bet on the Cowboys in my survivor pool last night!
“Historic Michigan mid-term turnout sees Democrat win amongst the highest number of votes cast in Michigan political history.”
You must be psychic.
Except that two core d/prog constituencies (‘Jews’ and ‘blacks’) were already peeling off from El-Sayed. Add to this the age 65+ demo which may have its own issues with El-Sayed’s policy goals. Especially the parts that seem to prioritize ‘immigrants’ over US Citizens. Then there’s the little town of Dearborn ….and I suspect not everyone in Michigan is onboard with transforming the State.
Bottom line here is MI is Blue but not completely bat crap Cray Cray, at least yet. El-Sayed may win and he should as it’s a d/prog lean BUT it won’t be a layup.
“Bottom line here is MI is Blue but not completely bat crap Cray Cray, at least yet.”
That was the point of my comment. Detroit was one of the cities directly involved in stealing the 2020 election for Biden. The Dems are desperate to take over the Senate. You think they’ll be shy in creating however many votes they need to overcome the part of the MI population that isn’t bat crap Cray Cray yet?
The record setting turnout will be the giveaway. The more votes they need to create to overturn the legitimate will of the voters, the higher the “turnout” numbers will be…even if it means they have districts with more ballots cast than they have registered voters, which happened in 2020 as well.
No, it did not. That has never happened, anywhere.
Yea, I know, that’s been “debunked” by the same people who assured us that the 2020 election was the most secure election ever and expect us to believe that Biden who spent most of his campaign in his basement garnered more votes than any other candidate in history, including Obama.
And told us that the videos from Atlanta of Dem operatives pulling containers of ballots out of hiding and running them through the counting machines multiple times after counting had been stopped for the day and all the “observers” sent home weren’t what they obviously were and we were crazy for even thinking that what we were seeing was actually what was happening.
Oh, and counting was stopped because of a water main break. Oh wait, it wasn’t a water main break, it was a leaky pipe. Oh wait, it wasn’t a leaky pipe, in fact counting was never stopped, all the observers and Republican vote counters just decided they wanted to go home and left voluntarily.
Or something.
Sailorcurt, what you describe has never happened, anywhere. If you claim it happens regularly, or even that it once happened somewhere, the onus is only you to cite one example. You can’t, because it is something that has literally never ever happened.
Now you bring up a bunch of irrelevant stuff about Atlanta, all of which is also a pack of lies.
That is a pack of lies. It never happened, and those who continue to claim it happened are liars.
Again a lie. That also never happened.
Not quite. The people who were opening envelopes finished their job, so they went home. The observers saw this and decided, entirely on their own, that this meant counting was over and they decided to leave. No one ever told the observers to go home.
In none of this was any water leak of any description ever mentioned. The water leak was discovered early in the morning when they first opened the place, not at night. It was cleaned up within two hours and that was it. It had nothing to do with anything that happened late that night.
“Now you bring up a bunch of irrelevant stuff about Atlanta, all of which is also a pack of lies.”
Unfortunately for you, I remember it happening in real time. After the red flags started flying and the attempts to handwave it away by coming up with postpartum excuses doesn’t fly with me. I. Saw. It. Happen.
I also saw the video of the events I described. It happened exactly as I described it. They, again tried to handwave it away “what you’re seeing happening is not actually what happened”.
BS. I believe my own recollections and what I saw with my own eyes, not the rantings of someone desperately trying to get me to believe that what I saw happening isn’t what happened.
That was just the most blatant example of the election fraud that happened in 2020 and the only reason it came to light is because they were too stupid to realize the security cameras in the counting venue were recording them.
In Detroit they were smart enough to tape paper over the windows of the counting room (also on video) so observers couldn’t see what they were doing.
The koran tells him that non-believers are without intelligence.
And the moslem moron bought it.
He does believe that Iran is the better ally because he is no ally or lover the USA. It’s really simple as that. He’s running on a “I hate this country,” platform and he will get alot of Mulim and other privledged white people voters with that. Unfortunately for him he has to win over more than just white wealthy idiots to win. So we will see, the last polls in the primary vastly over estimated his popularity. So it could be that these polls are as well.. Remember Harris was predicted to win Michigan and she didn’t. If this bigot only gets 10% of the Jewish vote he loses, since there are over 100,000 Jewish voters in his area and they tend to show up to the polls.
Guy has always reminded me of a junior high smart-a, trying to land what he thinks are zingers but are just snide, immature and stupid.
In other words, he looks like a genius to Democrats.
Like the Iran is a hypothetical threat comment. Hypothetical???? Un no, a distortion of reality worthy of the Obama pallet award.
You had me at whippersnapper.
USA suffers from low testosterone. Let’s man up and win. Anyone with a face like this joker’s needs to have it punched out. He is a nasty, greasy, smirking conniving foreigner.
And, universal democracy is a bad joke. To vote you should be 21, self supporting, male and white.
“Frankly, I’ve never understood how any Jewish voter could support El-Sayed, given his documented history of antisemitic rhetoric.”
“After tonight debate, El-Sayed’s support among Jewish democrats will probably go from 30% to 10%.”
If they’re loonie enough to be in that 30% what makes you think they’d care?
From every clip I have seen of El-Sayed, even if you put his associations and his positions aside, the guy is a total empty suit.
Face planting would have been better…
Michigan’s governor put covid positive people in old folks homes and killed God knows how many.
Ever spoke of using North Star Reach camp to house covid positives.
North Star Reach is Michigan’s only barrier-free, fully-accessible medical camp serving children with significant health challenges and their families from across the Great Lakes region.
Gov also supports abortion on demand. Probably until age 60, and the state residents gave her a second term for such leadership those areas.
I have my doubts that until the auto companies leave for a more intelligent state that much will change for the better in michigan.