DALLAS — Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers accused his Democratic rival, Abdul El-Sayed, of being “anti-American,” pointing to El-Sayed’s previous comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“He has long separated himself from Team America,” Rogers told The Post on Thursday, shortly before he was set to speak on the second and final night of the GOP’s midterm convention. “His rhetoric is divisive. It’s angry. It’s anti-American. He’d have to have a full about-face for me to even take him serious[ly].
“You need to decide if you’re going to be for the United States and what we represent, or you’re going to be for this ideology that has caused a lot of harm and death and destruction, not only here but around the world,” Rogers added. His remarks came one day before the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed 2,977 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
El-Sayed has faced renewed scrutiny over remarks from a September 2021 episode of his podcast, “America Dissected,” in which he said, “9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people.”
“When we talk about 9/11, we often fail to center them,” the future Senate candidate said in the same discussion.
Several days later, as the United States commemorated the 20th anniversary of the attacks, El-Sayed wrote on X, then known as Twitter: “Today, I mourn the 3K lives, 6K injuries, & infrastructural devastation in NYC, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my faith.”
The post, which was later deleted, went on: “Tomorrow, I’ll mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country.”
El-Sayed’s campaign pushed back sharply. “What is deeply anti-American is voting against healthcare funding for 9/11 first responders—which Mike Rogers did twice while in Congress,” communications director Roxie Richner told The Post.
“He told a 9/11 first responder—who had part of his foot amputated because of an injury sustained at Ground Zero—that his healthcare was a ‘New York problem,’” Richner added. “Mike Rogers is resorting to bad-faith lies of Abdul to distract from his decades-long career of extremism.”
Rogers, who was serving in the House at the time, objected in 2010 to making the World Trade Center Health Program a mandatory program, which would have allowed it to receive automatic funding without the kind of congressional oversight normally conducted before money is allocated.
Instead, Rogers unsuccessfully advocated for a $150 million appropriation to support 9/11 first responders suffering from related health problems.
The World Trade Center Health Program launched in 2011 and is currently authorized to operate through 2090.
Republicans have also made an issue of El-Sayed campaigning with Mao-loving far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that America “deserved” 9/11, before attempting to walk back that remark.
Despite his supposed reversal, Piker has displayed a framed copy of the New York Times front page of Sept. 12, 2001, prominently in his streaming studio.
“Abdul El Sayed has chosen Hasan as his running mate,” Rogers said in his convention address. “Together, they attack America. They excuse extremism. They treat our country like it’s the villain.”
“He’s a con man. I’m a lawman,” the Republican declared. “He wants to represent Palestine. I want to represent Michigan.”
