Michigan Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers is sharpening his attack on Democratic rival Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, using a new video featuring David Beamer, the father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, as the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks draws closer.
Beamer, a Michigan resident who endorsed Rogers this week, criticizes El-Sayed over his ties to far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11.” El-Sayed has appeared on the campaign trail with Piker multiple times, though he has publicly rejected that specific remark.
“A citizen, I guess, has a free will and a right to say that,” David Beamer says in the new Rogers digital ad. “An American would not.”
The ad arrives as El-Sayed faces renewed attention over past comments about 9/11, including remarks faulting the United States for deaths tied to the War on Terror.
In several social media posts that have since been deleted, El-Sayed referred to the attacks while comparing COVID-19 deaths with the 9/11 death toll. He also pointed to the wave of anti-Muslim sentiment that followed the terrorist attacks.
El-Sayed has defended his past posts, stressing that he views 9/11 as a horrific tragedy. Rogers’ campaign ad, however, leans into Beamer’s message that an “American wouldn’t say that.”
“Todd Beamer was an American hero who courageously stood up and faced down evil,” Rogers told The Post. “Todd’s selfless actions saved countless lives.”
“We have a state to save, and David knows it,” Rogers added.
Rogers, a former FBI agent and ex-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has made El-Sayed’s past rhetoric on 9/11 a central part of his attacks on the former public health official.
Todd Beamer was among the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11, when four al Qaeda hijackers seized control of the Newark to San Francisco flight.
After learning that other planes had been hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the younger Beamer and other passengers quickly realized their plane was also under terrorist control.
He spoke with GTE Airfone operator Lisa Jefferson in the midst of the hijacking. According to FBI records, he told her that the plane had been hijacked and that passengers were preparing to confront the attackers. Jefferson recalled hearing passengers discussing an effort to subdue the hijackers shortly before their counterattack began.
The passengers ultimately stormed the cockpit, and the 9/11 Commission concluded that Flight 93 was headed toward Washington — with the hijackers’ objective believed to be either the Capitol or the White House.
The passengers’ assault prevented the aircraft from reaching its intended target before it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m.
The Commission said the passengers’ actions “saved the lives of countless others” and may have saved the Capitol or White House from destruction.
David Beamer, who has spent decades speaking about his son’s sacrifice and legacy of the Flight 93 passengers, endorsed Rogers on Wednesday.
The elder Beamer has urged Michigan voters to “vote America this time,” warning that Democratic socialists are posing an existential threat to the nation.
In the video, he argues that Americans have a responsibility to preserve the memory of those who fought back on 9/11.
“So with every generation, the responsibility is to carry on, because America didn’t just happen,” the elder Beamer said. “America was built. America was protected, and that’s what it takes.”
