Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed posted a 9/11 remembrance on X on Friday, writing that nothing can justify the murder of innocent civilians and honoring victims and first responders. The post, which included a video, quickly drew replies and quote posts comparing the message to his earlier deleted anniversary remarks and to his campaign appearances with streamer Hasan Piker. Online users questioned the contrast, while the campaign has previously said he has unequivocally condemned the attacks.
In the clip, El-Sayed speaks to the camera and says, “We all remember where we were when the Twin Towers were hit.” He describes himself as “a student” on “a crisp fall morning,” saying “an airplane had just hit the Twin Towers,” that he turned “the TV on just in time” to see a plane “hit the towers,” and that “hours later, they collapsed.” He also names attacks at “the Pentagon in DC” and in “Pennsylvania,” saying “America [was] attacked,” and that the images “dominated our screens for weeks” and “dominate our memories still.”
He says the attacks “took the lives of more than 3,000” people, including “kids, women,” and “brave first” responders who tried “to save lives that day,” and that “thousands more were injured” and “many continue” “to suffer the consequences” “even today.” He adds, “They didn’t just attack America that day; they attacked the idea of America,” “the notion of a nation” “where it doesn’t” matter “if you pray at all,” even if “we struggle to fully realize it.”
Later he says nothing can justify “the murder of innocent civilians,” mourns “the victims, their families,” and “memories of those who were lost,” then says, “They tried to diminish America. They failed,” and that the country should honor them by building a nation “that is bigger, more inclusive, more empowering, more just.”
The video does not mention his deleted 2021 anniversary posts or campaign appearances with streamer Hasan Piker, both of which replies raised. Those earlier posts, and Piker’s 2019 remark that “America deserved 9/11,” have circulated in recent coverage. El-Sayed’s campaign has said he has condemned the attacks; fact-checkers have found no evidence he said the United States deserved them.
How Viewers Are Responding to the 9/11 Post
Several users compared the new message with older posts. Steve Guest replied, “This you?” Daily Wire editor Brent Scher wrote that it was “a completely different message than he sent on prior 9/11 anniversaries” and that “this one was written by political consultants.”
Anthony Galli said El-Sayed was “pretending like you don’t know your former lover.”
Others focused on the Piker association. Joanna Rodriguez wrote, “You remain unwilling to disavow your chief spokesman who said ‘America deserved 9/11.’”
Another user asked, “So did America deserve 9/11 or not?” Ryan Girdusky wrote that “campaigning with a guy who said we deserved 9/11” undercut the tribute.
Some replies were brief dismissals, including “Maybe sit this one out.”
The post is now one more flashpoint in Michigan’s Senate race over how El-Sayed talks about Sept. 11. Online, critics questioned how the new message compared with his earlier comments, while El-Sayed’s campaign has maintained that he has unequivocally condemned the attacks.
