Abdul El-Sayed is drawing mixed reactions after questioning Republican Senate rival Mike Rogers over consulting work tied to Nicolás Maduro’s government and Saudi nuclear technology. In an X post responding to Rogers’ claim that El-Sayed took a Wayne County consulting contract after leaving the county health department, the Michigan Democrat asked how much Rogers earned from those roles and whether “the second yacht [was] worth selling out your country.” The exchange has circulated widely among users divided over the allegations.
In the text, El-Sayed writes, “Can you remind us how much money you made helping Maduro spy on his people? Or how much you made helping Muhammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia get nuclear technology?” He then asks, “Was the second yacht worth selling out your country?”
Rogers’s quoted post had said El-Sayed “signed a secret ‘consulting’ contract with Wayne County just ONE WEEK after quitting his post at the Wayne Co. Health Department,” adding, “He abandoned his post but not his paycheck.”
Reporting earlier this year found Rogers served on a Telefónica advisory board and was paid nearly $100,000 while the company later acknowledged helping Venezuela’s government intercept customer communications; Rogers’s campaign has said he was focused on other work and was unaware of that Venezuela activity.
He also served with IP3 International, a firm that promoted U.S. nuclear technology sales to Saudi Arabia. El-Sayed has separately claimed Rogers bought two yachts after leaving Congress; public confirmation of a second yacht has not been established in the post, and the X thread does not document dollar amounts for either consulting role.
How Viewers Are Responding to the Michigan Senate Exchange
Some users treated the questions as a direct hit, with one writing that Rogers “cowers away from a real debate stage” and another repeating, “Was the second yacht worth selling our country?” and calling the answer “unequivocally yes.”
Others said El-Sayed was changing the subject, including one quote-post that read, “Deflect, deflect, deflect.”
A Rogers campaign communications staffer replied, “Can you remind us how much money you’ve taken from CAIR terrorists?”
A separate commenter argued Rogers was “infinitely more qualified” and was not “best friends with terrorist sympathizers who said the US deserved 9/11.”
Supporters of the original post called it “Good stuff,” while critics said El-Sayed “refuses to talk about his agenda if he got elected.”
It remains unclear whether the exchange will shift the Michigan Senate race beyond the current online debate. The posts continue to circulate as users respond to the competing claims.
