Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday that a narrow circle of Democratic power brokers and major donors appear prepared to watch Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed lose, arguing in an interview with “Politico Playbook” that El-Sayed’s progressive politics threaten wealthy interests and challenge the party’s stance on Israel. His remarks come as El-Sayed faces growing criticism over his connections to far-left streamer Hasan Piker.
Sanders argued that the opposition to El-Sayed is not limited to rank-and-file skeptics, but reaches into the upper tiers of the Democratic Party and its donor network.
“You’re talking about a small number of people who are at the head of the Democratic Party. You’re talking about the donor class…” Sanders said. “Are they less than enthusiastic about Abdul? Yes, they are.”
Yemisi Egbewole, a Democratic strategist and former Biden White House chief of staff, disputed Sanders’ interpretation in comments to Fox News Digital. She said the party’s focus should be on winning a Senate majority and argued that El-Sayed now bears the burden of uniting Democrats after his narrow primary victory over Rep. Haley Stevens.
“Dems want a majority in the Senate. El-Sayed apologized for his comments about the Temple Isreal attack and hasn’t campaigned with Hasan. No one is as caught up in this oligarchy business as Sanders is. Stevens lost. She endorsed Abdul. It’s now his job to win those voters,” Egbewole said.
Republican National Committee national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre also criticized Sanders’ support for El-Sayed, telling Fox News Digital that the Michigan Democrat’s past remarks and associations should disqualify him from serving in the Senate.
“Abdul El-Sayed is a terrorist bootlicker who downplayed 9/11, pals around with a radical streamer who thinks our country deserved it, and whose mother worked for an organization that funneled money to Osama bin Laden to orchestrate it,” she said. “His presence in the Senate would absolutely pose a national security threat, and it’s no surprise that Democrats are losing their minds at Bernie for propping up another unelectable extremist.”
Sanders, who supported El-Sayed during the Democratic primary, told Playbook that some within the party see candidates like him as a direct challenge to entrenched financial interests as well as to the prevailing U.S. approach to Israel.
Sanders said those Democrats view El-Sayed and similar progressives as “a threat to oligarchy” and a “threat to American foreign policy and our continued support for the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel.”
The exchange came as El-Sayed attempted to move past renewed questions about Piker, who campaigned with him during the Democratic primary.
Piker drew widespread Democratic condemnation this month after remarks about American Jews and Israel, with critics including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Sanders declined to join those Democrats in focusing on Piker, instead dismissing the streamer’s controversies while accusing Republicans and the media of distracting voters from economic issues.
“Like every other podcaster in the world, he says dumb things that people should reject,” Sanders said.
El-Sayed similarly resisted repeated questions about Piker at the Michigan Democratic Party convention Saturday, where four reporters pressed him about the streamer. Fox News Digital previously reported El-Sayed campaigned and socialized with Piker during the primary.
“We’re in the state of Michigan. If you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you’re missing the boat,” El-Sayed said. “This is about affordability in Michigan. This is about seeing a doctor in Michigan. This is about Donald Trump’s disastrous policies in Michigan. That’s what I’m focused on right now.”
El-Sayed also apologized Saturday for remarks he made following the March terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue. He had said, “Hurt people, hurt people,” following the attack, comments that drew criticism from Michigan Democrats, including Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“To anybody who feels like my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright,” El-Sayed said. “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context, and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”
An August Fox News poll showed Republican nominee Mike Rogers leading El-Sayed 51%-47%, within the survey’s margin of sampling error, while a subsequent AARP survey also showed the candidates locked in a margin-of-error contest. Fox polling found 91% of Democrats backed El-Sayed, compared with 96% of Republicans supporting Rogers.
Sanders urged El-Sayed to keep his campaign centered on economic concerns rather than the controversies surrounding Piker.
“Stay on the issues that impact working families in Michigan,” Sanders said. “Do that, you’re going to win — and I think he will.”
