El-Sayed: I Care About Hasan Piker's Audience Not His Comments

Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed said he cared about reaching far-left streamer Hasan Piker's audience, not his controversial comments.

Host Kristen Welker said, "You've faced scrutiny for campaigning with Socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has made a series of inflammatory comments, as you well know, including saying America deserved 9/11, describing Hamas as a lesser evil than Israel. Do you plan to continue to campaign with Hasan Piker in the general election campaign?"

El-Sayed said, "Look, I'm less concerned now with who I'm campaigning with and a lot more concerned about who I'm campaigning to. We've got a lot of work to do to continue to build the coalition that's going to beat Mike Rogers."

Welker asked, "Would you welcome him, though, on the campaign trail with you?"

El-Sayed said, "Like I said, I'm a lot more focused on who I'm campaigning to. I think we have this notion sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should not talk to certain groups of people. And I'll tell you that the three million people who listen to Hasan are people I want to make sure understand that there's a pathway into our politics around getting money out of politics so we can get money back in pockets and pass Medicare for All. And so I'm going to continue to have the conversations with those folks who we desperately need to reach out."

Welker asked, "When asked about Hasan Piker's comments on 9/11, Senator Bernie Sanders called it a dumb statement. Do you agree? Do you disavow those comments that America deserved 9/11?"

El-Sayed said, "Of course, of course. It was a dumb statement. And, of course, I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So yes. America didn't deserve 9/11. But, you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context, that they disavowed themselves, to say, 'Oh, well, what does that mean about what you think?' I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do rather than this idea that we're so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back.