Abdul El-Sayed Apologizes to Jewish Democrats After Temple Israel Attack Comments

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, has apologized to the state's Jewish Democratic Caucus. On Saturday, he addressed comments he made after a synagogue attack in March, which he linked to Israel's actions in the Middle East. The synagogue attacker had lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. El-Sayed emphasized he did not mean to justify the attack, and he apologized to anyone hurt by his remarks. El-Sayed is aiming to unify Democrats after a contentious primary against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. He faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in November's general election. Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a news conference at the base of the Spirit of Detroit monument in Detroit, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, apologized to the state's Jewish Democratic Caucus on Saturday for comments he made afteran attack on a synagoguein March, which he tied to Israel's actions in the Middle East. “My comments may have been misconstrued to justify something I did not mean to justify,” El-Sayed told reporters after he addressed the caucus at a party convention in Lansing. “To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry. That was not my intention.” El-Sayed’s apology was his latest attempt to unify Democratsafter a bitter primarywhere he defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. He’s eager to push pasta series of controversiesinvolving allegations of antisemitism, including his association withcontroversial commentator Hasan Piker.He faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a race that will help determine control of the Senate. In March, a man attacked Temple Israel synagogue in a Detroit suburb, ramming his car into the building and opening fire on a security guard before dying by suicide. The man, Ayman Mohammad Ghazali,had lost four relativesin an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week prior. In a video response at the time, El-Sayed condemned the attack and added that “hurt people hurt people,” a reference to what happened to Ghazali’s family. Critics accused El-Sayed of justifying Ghazali’s actions. “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context,” El-Sayed said on Saturday, “and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.” Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. To view our latest eEdition, click the image on the left.

Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, is scrambling this weekend to try to win over skeptical Jewish Democrats — meeting individually and with groups of Jewish party leaders and apologizing for controversial past remarks as he tries to unite a fractured party before November. But he downplayed the importance of his relationship with Hasan Piker, the far-left Twitch streamer who campaigned with El-Sayed during the primary — even after Piker told his audience earlier this month that Israel has become so toxic American Jews who support the country could be met with violence. “I don’t ever want my comments to hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s important to me that people understand that I take seriously the pain of all communities in this state,” El-Sayed told CNN. “But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. It’s just not a serious conversation.” El-Sayed, the progressive firebrand, defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate who was supported by tens of millions in spending linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in a hard-fought primary early this month. He is seeking to unify the Democratic Party ahead of his matchup with Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November’s midterm election. The race is critical in the larger battle for the Senate majority. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the chamber, and that path would grow much more complicated if they lost the seat of Michigan’s retiring Democratic senator, Gary Peters. A calmer convention At a state party convention Saturday in Lansing, the fissures from the primary had all but disappeared. The crowd of several hundred Democrats gave El-Sayed one of the day’s loudest cheers when he was introduced, and applauded his jabs at Rogers and President Donald Trump during his nine-minute speech. Norma McDaniel, a 79-year-old delegate from Inkster who works for the Detroit Department of Elections, said she opposed El-Sayed in the primary and arrived Saturday with serious concerns about his candidacy — but that his speech won her over. “He’s very articulate, he knows what points to hit, and he knows how to hit people’s hearts. He reached my heart today,” she said. “We have to unify the Democrats against what’s going on in Washington.” Notably absent from El-Sayed’s remarks onstage Saturday was an attack on one of his most frequent targets during the primary: AIPAC. He pointed to more than $60 million spent against him during that race, but did not mention the group responsible for that spending by name. It was one of several ways El-Sayed used the convention to seek to make inroads with the party’s most active Jewish members. This convention featured a much smaller, less raucous crowd than the Michigan Democratic Party’s spring gathering, where progressive pro-Palestinian activists booed Democrats they viewed as insufficiently critical of Israel’s actions in its war with Hamas. State Attorney General Dana Nessel skipped Saturday’s convention, saying she feared she would again be harassed and booed off the stage. Nessel was among the sharpest Democratic critics of El-Sayed’s response to the March attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit. Officials said Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon, drove a vehicle laden with explosives into the synagogue, which caught fire. The assailant, who killed himself at the scene, lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon a week before the Michigan attack. At the time, El-Sayed condemned the attack and antisemitism broadly, but also said that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.” He apologized Saturday to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus over those comments, which some interpreted as justification for the violence. “My comments might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify,” he told reporters afterward. “To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.” “We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do is 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,” El-Sayed said. Rogers responded to El-Sayed’s comments Saturday by accusing him of “trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed. Let me be clear: they have not.” “Abdul has had six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack,” Rogers said on social media. “Instead, he chose to surround himself with terrorist sympathizers and some of the most notable antisemites in the country.” Some Jewish progressives ‘still struggling’ Jewish Democrats who were in the room for El-Sayed’s comments said they considered his apology sincere. “That was the first time that I’ve heard him say it in that explicit way,” said Daniel Rivkin, a University of Michigan communications staffer from Ann Arbor who is a delegate at the party’s convention. “I think there’s a lot of dialogue going on, and that the dialogue will continue,” Rivkin said. “We have to work for every vote. I think that we have progressives who are real progressives who are nevertheless still struggling.” El-Sayed plans to court that group’s members again in a longer meeting Sunday, as he speaks at the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Summer Simcha celebration. That gathering is private. When El-Sayed was asked by reporters to preview his message to the group, he said that “we may not agree on everything.” “When it comes to foreign policy, I believe deeply in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Palestinian and Jewish Israelis alike. I’m not going to stop fighting for Palestinian self-determination because all of the money that we have spent to foreclose on it is money that should have been spent here, right?” El-Sayed said. “The question of where we spend our tax dollars — that should be a foregone conclusion. It should be spent here.” “And we can show here in Michigan how we can disagree agreeably on some of those issues having to do with what we do 6,000 miles away, and show that we can stand arm in arm to protect the well-being of all of us here at home,” El-Sayed said. El-Sayed dismisses concerns about Piker Still, it was clear Saturday that El-Sayed isn’t conceding all of the concerns some Jewish Democrats have raised about his candidacy. He remained largely dismissive about concerns over his relationship with Piker, a strident critic of Israel who recently suggested that American Jews’ support of Israel will make antisemitism worse and invite violence. Piker has said his comments weren’t meant to be taken as antisemitic. Piker appeared with El-Sayed multiple times on the campaign trail during his primary race. El-Sayed said he wanted to reach Piker’s massive audience of young progressives. Piker recently drew scrutiny for criticizing a Democratic congressional candidate, state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, for failing to endorse El-Sayed. El-Sayed has sought to keep Piker at arm’s length, saying in a statement that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.” That wasn’t enough for some Democrats, including Rep. Hillary Scholten, who said she won’t campaign with El-Sayed as long as he associates with Piker. She said on X earlier this week that Piker is “hurting the chances of a Democratic majority in November.” Pressed by reporters Saturday about Jewish Democrats’ concerns about Piker, El-Sayed repeatedly insisted that “this is not a campaign that is about a single streamer in California.” “This is about affordability in Michigan; anybody who’s ever said that they’re existentially worried about Donald Trump; anybody who’s ever said that they believe in religious pluralism and the right to pray as you choose to pray,” he said. “All that we hold dear is on the line. It is time for us to unite around taking that on.”

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, argues reporters are 'missing the boat' when asking about controversial streamer Hasan Piker. LANSING, Mich. — Socialist-adjacent Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed addressed the media during Saturday's state Democratic Party Nominating Convention, where he was dogged by many of the same questions that have plagued his campaign for months. Surrounded by media in a hallway at the Lansing Center, where the convention took place, El-Sayed was peppered with questions from the press about his relationship with far-left online personality Hasan Piker, along with his stance on Israel and Gaza, which has driven a wedge between his campaign and some Democrats, especially Jewish ones. "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 told reporters. "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." Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, talks poolside with streamer Hasan Piker at a party for content creators supporting his campaign, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Detroit. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo) ABDUL EL-SAYED PLAYS DOWN HASAN PIKER TIES AFTER STREAMER’S VIRAL ANTISEMITISM FIRESTORM Four different reporters asked El-Sayed about Piker, with whom he campaigned and partied during his primary race. He dodged all of them, falling back on describing the polarizing streamer as "a streamer from California" who is irrelevant to his race in Michigan. "I am not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California. And to folks who want to make this about a social media person in California, let’s not forget what actually matters in our politics, what our politics are really about," he said. "I don’t ever want my comments to hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s important to me that people understand that I take seriously the pain of all communities in this state. But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. This is not a serious conversation." EL-SAYED DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM HASAN PIKER AFTER DISTURBING REMARKS ABOUT JEWISH AMERICANS Piker is known for saying "America deserved 9/11," praising Mao Zedong and Communist China, arguing that capitalists should be murdered in the streets and making a litany of antisemitic comments. Fox News Digital asked El-Sayed about a recent controversy stemming from comments he made in March in response to an attack on a Michigan synagogue, when federal investigators say a gunman inspired and radicalized by Hezbollah crashed into the place of worship seeking to kill as many Jewish people as he could. U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed speaks at the Michigan Democratic Party convention, on August 29, 2026 in Lansing, Michigan. (Peter D'Abrosca/Fox News Digital) "Hurt people, hurt people," he said in response to the attack. He has been criticized by members of his own Party, including Secretary of State Dana Nessel, who discussed the comments in a recent interview with The Atlantic, and declined to attend Saturday's convention partly over concerns of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. JEWISH DEM DECENT DEFECTIONS THREATEN EL-SAYED IN MICHIGAN SENATE RACE DECIDED BY RAZOR-THIN MARGINS El-Sayed told Fox News Digital his comments "might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify," but then offered an apology. "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 told Fox News Digital. "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." JEWISH AG’S CONVENTION BOYCOTT EXPOSES DEEPENING ISRAEL FAULT LINE AMONG MICHIGAN DEMOCRATS He also said it was the responsibility of the Democratic Party to come together. Michigan Democrats swarmed the convention center Saturday afternoon, where the theme was "unity" amid the controversies faced by the state's highest-profile candidate for elected office. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Other statewide candidates took the stage to rally attendees, and presented a united front, often invoking their opposition to President Donald Trump as a point of common interest. Peter D'Abrosca is a politics reporter at Fox News Digital.

Gift this articleShare to FacebookPrint article Article printing is available to subscribers only Print in a simple, ad-free format Subscribe Comments: SaveZen Reading Zen reading is available to subscribers only Ad-free and in a comfortable reading format Subscribe !Arno Rosenfeld Arno Rosenfeld 10:41 PM • August 29 2026 IDT Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, apologized Saturday to a group of Jewish Democrats for comments he made after a March attack on a synagogue outside Detroit that many found insensitive. Loading... Click the alert icon to follow topics: FollowJewish Diaspora FollowIsrael - U.S. FollowJewish world Comments Your Perspective Belongs Here Want to reply? Subscribe to join the conversation SUBSCRIBE Already signed up? Log in Loading... In the News In the News: Live UpdatesWest BankIDF VideoGaza Militias Iran RegimeNetanyahu CampaignOfer WinterSuper El NiñoPollHaQuizHaaretz Podcast ICYMI Trending Now Trending Now Trending Now Trending Now Trending Now ICYMI

LANSING — Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed apologized for his past comments regarding the March attack on Temple Israel in suburban Detroit during a meeting with the state Democratic party’s Jewish caucus at the party convention on Saturday. The Democratic nominee told the room that his remarks following the attempted targeting of the West Bloomfield synagogue preschool, in which he had said, in part, “Hurt people hurt people,” were intended to provide “context.” Reflecting on them, he said on Saturday, “I made a mistake.” “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. It was not what I intended to do,” El-Sayed continued. Referencing the first of two statements he had made about the attack, he added, “We issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and that just should have been it, full stop.” El-Sayed’s initial Temple Israel comments, which many Jews interpreted as justifying the attack, have alienated Jewish voters in the state. After an initial statement condemning the attack, El-Sayed then followed up with one referencing Israel’s war in Lebanon, where the attacker had lost family in an Israel airstrike. On Saturday, El-Sayed, a former county health director, insisted that his push for “context” to the attack was broadly appropriate, but not at that moment, explaining that such “conversations” could happen “in the fullness of time.” “Sometimes you can’t really see context in the moment of acuity or pain,” he said. “The intention for me was not to trample that pain. It was not to discount it. It was not at all to justify any sort of domestic terrorism. That’s wrong, full stop.” El-Sayed’s apology, which was in response to a question posed to him by a Jewish Democrat in attendance, came amid a new round of outreach efforts he has been making with Jewish voters since he won Michigan’s Democratic senate primary earlier this month. He also plans to attend a Sunday Jewish caucus gathering honoring state Attorney General Dana Nessel with congressional nominee Jeremy Moss in attendance, both of whom the candidate has publicly been at ideological odds with over Jewish issues. In recent days El-Sayed has also minimized some of his harsh critiques of Israel in his stump speeches and issued a statement distancing himself from onetime campaign ally Hasan Piker, the left-wing anti-Israel streamer. His nomination acceptance speech later that day made only one, oblique, reference to American support for Israel: “It shouldn’t be this hard to pay your taxes and know that that money’s going to be spent on you, and your kids, and your schools, instead of being dropped in the form of a bomb on somebody else, and their kids, and their school.” But skepticism was still palpable among the 30 or so Jewish Democrats in the room, a crowd that included one delegate who said his daughter and grandson had been inside Temple Israel when it was attacked. “Our safety as Jews in America relies on, I think, what’s said by public figures, and how they present themselves in public, and how they advocate for Jews in public,” he said just prior to El-Sayed’s apology. Not all of El-Sayed’s answers pleased the room. Fielding another question about whether he would support the longstanding Democratic platform of a two-state solution in the Middle East if elected senator, the candidate pivoted. “It’s incoherent to start with a solution and say, ‘Figure out how to work here,’” El-Sayed said. “To me, it’s about starting with a process and saying, ‘How do we dignify equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinian people and Jewish Israelis alike?’” He added, as he has in other interviews, that he was open to the possibility of a two-state solution “if that’s what a free Palestinian and free Jewish Israeli people decide.” But, he qualified, “Our country, under the guise of a two-state solution, has been aiding, arming, and abetting a government that wants to foreclose on the possibility of a second state.” That didn’t sit well with some in attendance, even as El-Sayed’s apology for his other comments was broadly appreciated. “I really liked him apologizing for misspeaking. We’ve all made comments that we regret later on,” Rebecca Kasen, a Lansing-area Michigan Jewish Democrat in attendance, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I was less comfortable with what he said about not supporting a two-state solution.” Overall, Kasen said, her opinion of El-Sayed had improved after the Jewish caucus meeting as a result of his apology. “I was probably a more reluctant voter for him” beforehand, she said. That had changed: “Instead of just going to vote now, I am going to be enthusiastically voting for him.” As the senate race is shaping up to be the potential tipping point to decide control of the chamber in a crucial midterm year seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump, the views of the state’s Jewish Democrats regarding their party have been placed under a microscope for more reasons than just El-Sayed. That has led some longtime Jewish Democratic voters to defect to the Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, and also led to some awkward moments at the convention. In one example, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, the party’s progressive Jewish nominee for state attorney general, addressed the Jewish caucus by declaring, “We’re going to win and keep the attorney general’s office in the hands of a Michigan Jewish Democrat.” Conspicuously absent from the day’s events was Nessel, the Jewish Democrat currently holding the seat. Prior to the Saturday convention, Nessel, the state’s highest ranking Jewish official, had announced she would not be attending for fear she would be targeted by antisemitic harassment. Earlier this week, in a podcast interview with The Atlantic, Nessel had reiterated her issues with El-Sayed’s comments about Temple Israel and expressed hope he would walk them back soon. Nessel’s son Zach Nessel, secretary of the state Jewish Democratic caucus, told the caucus that his mother’s absence stemmed from “agitators” who had targeted her at the party endorsement convention in the spring. Attendance at Saturday’s event was less than one-third of what the Jewish caucus had drawn at the spring convention, organizers said. Zach Nessel criticized the state Democratic Party for failing to take prompt action to remove the agitators from the earlier convention. He told JTA that Jews in the party “have a right to be concerned.” “I think the Democratic Party needs to put more work into addressing their concerns,” Zach Nessel said. “But I think that can’t happen without showing up.” Moss, the Michigan state senator who has recently been at the center of another El-Sayed-related controversy, was spotted at the convention on Saturday but did not attend the Jewish caucus events. One ally of El-Sayed’s who also addressed the caucus is University of Michigan Board of Regents nominee Amir Makled. He is an attorney for members of the school’s pro-Palestinian encampment movement who had pushed out a Jewish pro-Israel incumbent at the previous convention. During his own address to Jewish delegates, Makled did not mention his history of social media posts including retweeting far-right antisemitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens and sharing praise for Hezbollah leaders. Makled’s speech later that day at the nominating convention alluded to his work with the encampments as he declared that Michigan “will never have a university where students are punished simply because their speech makes the powerful uncomfortable.” In-between candidate meet-and-greets, Jewish caucus members shared their anxieties about their closely scrutinized role in the midterm elections. They were gravely concerned about protecting democracy and election security from Republican threats, and felt that flipping the Senate was crucial. Yet it was hard, they said, to get much of the Jewish community onboard this time, given the positions of El-Sayed and some other members of the Democratic slate. Michigan is home to an estimated 100,000 Jews, and the senate race is currently polling in a dead heat, making their votes potentially pivotal. “How do we unify our community to put the country first?” one attendee asked the group. “I have a hard time doing that.” As the Year Turns, Support the Journalism You Trust. JTA covers the stories shaping Jewish life around the world — with the depth this moment calls for. As you reflect on the year ahead, consider a gift that keeps independent Jewish journalism strong.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed apologized to Jewish Democrats on Saturday about comments he made following a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue. The apology comes as new polling suggests the Senate race against Republican Mike Rogers remains highly competitive, with surveys showing anything from a narrow Democratic lead to a small Republican advantage. The Michigan Senate contest is expected to play a key role in determining control of the Senate after the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats are defending an open seat following the retirement of Senator Gary Peters, and El-Sayed's candidacy has drawn national attention because of his progressive platform and outspoken criticism of Israeli government policies. The dispute over his comments following the synagogue attack has underscored concerns among some Jewish Democrats and moderates who will likely be crucial in a general election in a battleground state. "My comments might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify,” he told reporters in Lansing after addressing the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, CNN reported. “To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.” In order to win, political observers have noted El-Sayed must hold together Michigan's progressive, Arab American, Muslim and Jewish Democratic constituencies while also appealing to independents in a state that President Donald Trump carried in 2024. Newsweek reached out to El-Sayed by email Saturday for further comment. What Did El-Sayed Apologize For? According to CNN, El-Sayed apologized Saturday for the comments he made after a March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. In March, Ayman Ghazali crashed his pickup truck into the synagogue after being inspired by Hezbollah, the Iran‑backed militant group, the FBI said Monday. Ghazali recorded a video before the attack at Temple Israel in which he said he wanted to “kill as many of them as I possibly can,” according to Jennifer Runyan, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Detroit. It was a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan," she said. Ghazali, 41, of Dearborn Heights, sat in the synagogue parking lot for several hours before driving his pickup through closed doors and into a hallway near an early childhood education area, striking a security guard. He then exchanged gunfire with another guard before fatally shooting himself, the FBI said. El-Sayed faced criticism for saying "hurt people hurt people" in a video statement issued after the attack. Critics, including some Jewish Democratic leaders and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel argued the language appeared to contextualize or excuse the alleged attacker rather than unequivocally condemn the act. "I think most concerning, of course, was the statement that our nominee for U.S. Senate made, which was that ‘hurt people hurt people,’" Nessel explained during a recent interview with The Atlantic’s David Frum. "And a lot of us perceived that as sort of making excuses for somebody who sought to murder over 100 pre-K schoolchildren. And that’s the kind of mentality that bothers me a lot." Newsweek also reached out to Nessel via email for comment on Saturday. Speaking to Jewish Democrats, El-Sayed said he "made a mistake" and acknowledged that he should have stopped after condemning the attack. He said he had been trying to provide broader context but instead failed to adequately recognize the pain and fear experienced by the Jewish community. He added that if his statement caused pain, he was sorry. “We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do is 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,” El-Sayed said during his apology. Jewish Democrats who were in the room told CNN that they considered the Senate hopeful's apology sincere. “That was the first time that I’ve heard him say it in that explicit way,” Daniel Rivkin, a University of Michigan communications staffer from Ann Arbor who is a delegate at the party’s convention, told the outlet. What Polls Show Despite the controversy, polling suggests El-Sayed remains competitive in the general election and may even hold a slight edge depending on the survey. The New York Times' polling tracker shows a closely contested race between El-Sayed and Rogers, with no clear runaway favorite. Recent public polls have generally found the candidates separated by only a few percentage points, with El-Sayed only slightly higher. A RealClearPolling average published this week shows El-Sayed leading Rogers by about 1.8 percentage points, 46.3 percent to 44.5 percent. The underlying polls paint a mixed picture. An EPIC-MRA survey conducted August 22-28 among 600 likely voters found El-Sayed leading Rogers 47 percent to 43 percent. The poll's margin of error was 4 percentage points. Meanwhile, a Fabrizio/Anzalone poll taken earlier in August showed El-Sayed ahead by just one point, 48 percent to 47 percent, when 877 likely voters were surveyed. That poll's margin of error was 3.3 percentage points. By contrast, a Fox News poll of 1,006 registered voters released in mid-August put Rogers ahead 51 percent to 47 percent and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. While El-Sayed has benefited from strong enthusiasm among progressives and younger voters, Republicans have argued that his positions on Israel and other progressive issues could make it harder for him to win over moderate and suburban voters needed to secure victory in November. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Jenni Fink and Anthony Murray.

El-Sayed apologizes to those hurt by comments after synagogue attack LANSING — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed apologized on Aug. 29 to anyone who was hurt by a statement he released earlier this year after an attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township. El-Sayed's past statement on March 13 said there was no justification for the attack but included the words "hurt people hurt people." It's drawn criticism from Jewish residents of Michigan, including Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel. "To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry," El-Sayed told reporters at the Michigan Democratic Party convention in Lansing. "That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned that outright. "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." In the March attack, a gunman rammed his truck into a West Bloomfield Township synagogue and opened fire on the temple, exchanging gunfire with security guards before he was killed. Ibrahim Ghazali ― the brother of Ayman Ghalazi, the man who carried out the attack at the synagogue ― was a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces said. El-Sayed met on Saturday with the Michigan Democratic Party's Jewish Caucus and is scheduled to attend another Jewish Caucus event in Birmingham on Aug. 30. State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Bloomfield Township, who is Jewish, didn't attend the caucus meeting on Aug. 29 but said he heard the conversation with El-Sayed went well. The apology for the past comments about the synagogue attack was "something that a lot of people in that room needed to hear," Moss said. Moss, a candidate for the U.S. House in the 11th District, and Nessel, who is also Jewish, are among a group of prominent Democrats who have not yet endorsed El-Sayed, despite the fact that he won the primary election against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham on Aug. 4. "This is a process about making sure all voices in the 11th District are heard and valued in our Democratic tent, and I see real efforts for that to take place," Moss told The Detroit News. "And I think that the remarks in the Jewish Caucus today are a significant part of that." Another Michigan Democrat, U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids, has criticized El-Sayed for campaigning with liberal online commentator Hasan Piker. Earlier in the week, Scholten said she still had concerns about El-Sayed's connections to Piker, who's made a series of controversial comments about Israel and the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the convention, El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health official, turned away a reporter's question about Piker, saying he wasn't interested "in a conversation about a social media person in California." "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 being able to see a doctor in Michigan. This is about (Republican President) Donald Trump's disastrous policies in Michigan." El-Sayed told reporters that Michigan Democrats need to "come together as a party." El-Sayed will face Republican candidate Mike Rogers of White Lake Township in the November election. "This election is not about the past," El-Sayed said. "This election is about the future ... If we're serious about protecting our democracy, if we're serious about standing up for unions and providing health care, then we need to be serious about what it takes to unify and win in November." In a post on X, Rogers said El-Sayed had "six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack." "It’s too little, too late, Abdul. Michiganders see you for exactly who you are: A Conman," Rogers added.

Supported by ‘I Made a Mistake’: El-Sayed Apologizes for Comment About Synagogue Attack Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, faced criticism from Jewish Democrats after remarking, “hurt people hurt people.” Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, apologized to a group of Jewish Democrats on Saturday for a statement he made in March about an attack on a synagogue near Detroit, saying that “nobody deserves to have their pain trampled on.” Dr. El-Sayed, who is trying to appeal to Jewish Democrats who have expressed deep skepticism about his candidacy, said he should not have included a phrase — “hurt people hurt people” — in a video statement he issued soon after a man drove his truck into the synagogue, injuring a guard. The authorities said the attack, on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., was a targeted act against Jews. “I made a mistake,” said Dr. El-Sayed, responding to a question while addressing the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at a party convention in Lansing. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” Dr. El-Sayed said he had been trying to “offer broader context” but had inadvertently trampled on “the dignity that that fear and that pain should have been afforded.” He added: “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. That was not what I intended.” The authorities said the man who carried out the attack on the synagogue, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Lebanon, had lost family in an Israeli attack in March. In his initial statement, Dr. El-Sayed said there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people” but that he understood that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.” On Saturday, Dr. El-Sayed said his attempts to contextualize the attack were inappropriate in its immediate aftermath. Related Content Advertisement

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed apologized to a group of Jewish voters on Saturday for a statement he made in March in response to a Hezbollah-inspired attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield. While at an event hosted by the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, el Sayed said, “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. That’s not what I intended,” according to the New York Times. El Sayed came under fire in the spring for saying in a video statement that “hurt people hurt people” after a rifle-wielding Islamic terrorist drove a truck into the Temple Israel synagogue in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence.” Recommended Stories Gunman Ayman Mohamad Ghazali drove through the halls of the synagogue with several explosives and a rifle in his vehicle before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement on March 12. No one was hurt in the incident, including children attending the synagogue’s early childhood development program, which was in class that morning. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) later said the attack “was antisemitic” and stemmed from “hate, plain and simple.” While Whitmer and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) strongly condemned the violence and urged Michiganders to call out antisemitism whenever they see it, el Sayed received blowback for tying Ghazali’s actions to military tensions between Israel and Lebanon. “As an epidemiologist, I’ve spent my career studying the worst things that happen to people to understand how to stop them from happening,” el Sayed said in the statement. “And I’ll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation while in medical school: Hurt people hurt people. Violence is a cycle. Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children, in an airstrike in Lebanon last week. They were innocent people. And then, in an evil act of displaced rage, he tried to take it out on innocent children who had nothing to do with the loss of the innocent children he lost, except that they share a faith.” “I made a mistake,” he said Saturday to the Jewish group. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” El Sayed also reportedly told attendees, “no one deserves to have their pain trampled on.” El Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, said on Saturday the socialist is “trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed.” “Abdul has had six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack,” Rogers said. “Instead, he chose to surround himself with terrorist sympathizers and some of the most notable antisemites in the country. It’s too little, too late, Abdul.” El Sayed has faced controversy over his anti-Israel views and campaigning alongside internet personality Hasan Piker. He is one of many socialist Democrats who have risen to prominence throughout the summer ahead of November’s midterm elections. El Sayed and Rogers recently agreed to an Oct. 8 debate.

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) —Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s open U.S. Senate race, apologized Saturday for a comment he made in the spring about the Temple Israel synagogue attack in West Bloomfield, Michigan, telling Jewish Democrats the pain of the moment deserved his condemnation and nothing more. The apology, made before the Michigan Jewish Caucus during a party convention, is the latest sign of El-Sayed working to reassure Jewish voters heading into a general election that could tip the balance of the U.S. Senate.The New York Timesreported his account of the exchange and had a reporter at the convention who witnessed the remarks. 6 News was not in the room to witness the apology. Responding to a question, the New York Times reported, he said, “I made a mistake. I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” Soon aftera driver rammed a truck into the metro Detroit synagogueand injured a guard, El-Sayedreleased a videostatement. In the video, he said there was no justification for harming innocent people but framed the violence as part of a larger cycle, using the phrase, “hurt people hurt people.” Critics said it amounted to rationalizing an antisemitic attack. Investigators described the assault as deliberately aimed at Jews. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former Detroit health director, told the caucus he regrets reaching for the context in the immediate aftermath. He said if his words caused pain, he was sorry, and that hurting anyone had not been his intent. Some Jewish Democrats said the outreach is working. State Sen. Jeremy Moss of Southfield called El-Sayed’s apology credible to the New York Times. Jim Lancaster of DeWitt, a delegate who attended the Jewish Caucus apology, told 6 News El-Sayed’s apology seemed sincere. “It went a long way, and I think he ought to say it into every TV camera he can,” Lancaster said. “It worked for me.” Coverage of El-Sayed’s campaign has centered on his association with Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer known for provocative commentary on Israel. The two appeared together during the primary, though El-Sayed has said he doesn’t plan to campaign with Piker before November. El-Sayed responded to comments from Piker, criticizing Israel and other Michigan Democrats for not endorsing him, by saying no one speaks for him but himself and his own spokespeople, and said Americans should be able to voice their beliefs without fear of violence. Shortly after winning the Democratic primary this month, El-Sayed likened his commitment to Jewish safety to that of his own daughters. POLITICO’sPlaybooknewsletter reported Saturday morning that El-Sayed is expected to attend the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Summer Simcah Sunday celebration tomorrow and address Jewish leaders’ concerns. The event will honor Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish and has criticized El-Sayed. The stakes are steep. El-Sayed faces former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee, in one of the few races that will decide Senate control in November. El-Sayed spent part of the week trying to project unity within the Democratic Party, campaigning alongside Maryland U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is Jewish, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor. Both urged the party to stop dwelling on Piker. Dingell mentioned Piker by name during a speech, saying reporters should stop asking her about him because it isn’t what the November election is about — and Republicans, she argued, are the ones hoping to divide Democrats.

A controversial attempt to explain the attack drew renewed scrutiny, forcing the candidate to address Jewish Democrats before a pivotal Senate race. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Party candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, apologized to Jewish Democrats over his response to the March attack on a synagogue near Detroit. He acknowledged that his remark that “hurt people hurt others” could have been perceived as an attempt to justify violence. As reported byCNN During the party convention in Lansing, El-Sayed addressed the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus. He said he did not intend to diminish the Jewish community’s experience or explain the attack through events that preceded the tragedy. My comments could have been misinterpreted as justifying something I never intended to justify. To everyone my words may have offended, I sincerely apologize. That was not my intention. – Abdul El-Sayed The attack took place in the township of West Bloomfield. A man drove a vehicle into the synagogue building and then opened fire on security personnel. The FBI classified the incident as a terrorist act inspired by Hezbollah and targeting the Jewish community. The attacker was identified as Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent. He died at the scene by suicide. A week before the attack, members of his family in Michigan were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. The candidate stressed that he had unequivocally condemned the synagogue attack. At the same time, he agreed that attempting to discuss the reasons behind the crime was inappropriate at a time when the community was dealing with the aftermath of the violence. We condemned this terrorist attack unequivocally. I tried to provide context for why it happened, but it was not the time for context. You cannot dismiss someone’s pain. – Abdul El-Sayed The apology came ahead of the November election, in which El-Sayed is set to face Republican and former U.S. House member Mike Rogers. The outcome of the race could affect which party holds the Senate majority. Earlier this week, El-Sayed also distanced himself from left-wing streamer and activist Hasan Piker. Piker told an audience on Twitch that American Jews’ support for Israel allegedly fuels antisemitism and could provoke violence. Piker himself maintained that his remarks were not antisemitic. El-Sayed noted that only he and official campaign representatives are authorized to speak on behalf of his campaign. He also plans to attend a closed summer meeting of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, where concerns among Jewish Democrats will be discussed, including those of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Daniel Rivkin, a University of Michigan communications staff member and party convention delegate from Ann Arbor, called the candidate’s apology sincere. He said it was the first time he had heard such a direct acknowledgment of a mistake from El-Sayed. There is a lot of dialogue taking place, and that dialogue will continue. We need to fight for every vote. There are progressive voters who remain genuinely progressive but are still struggling. – Daniel Rivkin Responding to questions about Jewish Democrats’ concerns over Hasan Piker’s statements, El-Sayed said that Michigan’s campaign should not turn into a discussion about a streamer from California. He added that he takes the pain of all communities in the state seriously and seeks to avoid remarks that could offend anyone. Other topics you might like: