Abdul El-Sayed calls Trump’s Michigan rally attacks ‘deflections’
The Democratic Senate candidate responded in Detroit on October 26 to Trump’s remarks at a Michigan rally the previous day, pointing instead to living costs and the war on Iran.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for a US Senate seat in Michigan, said at a Detroit news conference on October 26 that President Donald Trump’s attacks on him at a Michigan rally the previous day were an attempt to divert attention from petrol prices and the war on Iran. Trump had called him a ‘jihadist’ and accused him of wanting to impose Sharia law, Al Jazeera reported.
El-Sayed described the attacks as ‘deflections and deceptions based on no evidence’. He said his name and faith were not the reason people could not afford gas, groceries, rent, mortgages or medical care. The exchange comes during a Senate contest between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers that could help determine control of the chamber, according to Associated Press reporting carried by The Korea Herald.
Trump’s October 25 remarks in Michigan
At the October 25 rally, Trump said El-Sayed would ‘have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate’. The Associated Press reported that Trump portrayed him as a national security threat and invoked the September 11 attacks, comparing the prospect of stopping El-Sayed from entering the chamber with passengers fighting hijackers aboard United Flight 93. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied ties to extremist groups and called attacks on his loyalty to the United States ‘shameful’, AP reported.
Former Trump ally condemns the remarks
Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, condemned the president’s statements in a phone interview with the Associated Press. ‘The president’s statements are out of line,’ he said. ‘They are crossing a red line. They are racist.’ Bahbah had been involved in Trump’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.
El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, said most Michiganders rejected the rhetoric. ‘The vast majority of folks in this state believe in a big America,’ he said at the Detroit news conference, according to Al Jazeera. He described them as open-minded and big-hearted, adding that ‘Michiganders are a lot bigger than that.’
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Sources and context
- ‘Deflections’: Abdul El-Sayed responds to Trump’s anti-Muslim attacksAl Jazeera
- Trump attacks El-Sayed in MichiganThe Korea Herald, with Associated Press reporting
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.