Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed has recently come under fire online after calling his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, a “chicken” for skipping the latest debate. The recent ad was seen as disrespectful to the other Michigan Senate candidate and sparked widespread criticism of the Democrat.
In the video, which was unveiled shortly before the debate was to be aired on FOX 2’s The Pulse, El Sayed can be seen holding a chicken and clearly alluding to Rogers being a coward for skipping the debate.
As reported by the HuffPost, El Sayed went on air to criticize Rogers again during the one-man debate, slamming Rogers for going to a GOP convention but not taking the time to speak to Michigan residents, which “tells you everything about who he is and what his priorities are.”
Rogers’ campaign struck back, accusing FOX 2 moderator Roop Raj of being “biased” toward the Democrat and using this as a reason for refusing to debate.
Critics React to Abdul El Sayed’s Recent Ad
Many X users criticized El Sayed for comparing Rogers to a chicken. One of them said: “Abdul doesn’t understand that he is not worthy of a debate. he lies and manipulated, he would have to speak the truth or have actually policy’s instead of entertainment and false hope to the naive voters.”
Others agreed with the sentiment while speaking of Abdul’s controversial relationship with Hasan Piker: “No need to debate as we know Rogers is our American that woukd stand for the U.S. Constitution and not befriend or take advice from people like CAIR supporters or what’s his name…Hasan Piker?”
To some other users, the main issue was that El Sayed was seen as a communist: “You are a communist. I understand why he never showed up. Michiganders won’t vote a communist who hates America into the Senate.”
While reactions on X were mostly against El Sayed, a similar thread covering the debate on Reddit’s r/Michigan had much more favorable views. For example, one person said: “The sad part is he knows his racist voters are still going to vote for him regardless it’s a sad world we live in.” Others called the Republican candidate “Mike Dodgers” for skipping the debate.
For now, the dispute has only added more tension to an already heated Michigan Senate race. With Rogers and El-Sayed still scheduled to face each other in two upcoming debates, voters will soon have the opportunity to hear both candidates make their case on the same stage.
