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Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, on Sunday said Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is making the midterm election “easier” for the GOP.
“I’m certain that Abdul El-Sayed is making it easier. Because he is inconsistent with Michiganders of either side of the aisle,” Scott said during a Sunday clip of an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju that aired on the network.
“By the way, he’s someone who wants to defund police, defund ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], who wants to abolish our concept of a border. He’s just wrong for Michigan,” Scott added.
His comments come as GOP ads against El-Sayed paint him as the “most dangerous” candidate in the race and refer to him by his full name of Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed.
When asked if using his full name was meant to be an indirect attack on El-Sayed’s Muslim faith, Scott said, “Not at all.”
“What we’re saying to, what we’re only saying to voters is a simple thing. He says he’s the ‘most dangerous candidate’ you can find,” Scott added.
“He’s right. We should trust his words, not ours,” the lawmaker continued.
The attack ads use an isolated clip of El-Sayed stating, “I’m pretty damn dangerous,” a remark originally directed at establishment Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) whom he named.
The comment was not made in reference to public safety.
However, it remains one example of how Republicans and President Trump are painting El-Sayed and other candidates with progressive policies as political outliers ahead of the November elections.
On Sunday, Trump fired shots at the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate directly by posting a picture of himself alongside the first lady next to a photo of El-Sayed and his wife, with a caption that read “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked El-Sayed about the post during an interview on “State of the Union.”
He responded to the president by saying, “Yeah, he’s right. One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things.”
“So yes, you’ve got two different visions of America. Donald Trump’s vision is the one you’re living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries? Do you believe, when you look your kids in the eye, that they’re going to have a better future than you did?” he added.
El-Sayed strongly opposes the Iran war and, as an advocate for Palestine and Palestinian rights, has criticized campaigns with funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Scott said Republicans will use his stance to paint him as someone who is “sympathetic for Hamas” while capitalizing on his close ties to Hasan Piker, a left-wing commentator who previously said the U.S. deserved the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
Piker has since disavowed his comment, and El-Sayed has condemned the remark as well.
“Of course it was a dumb statement and of course I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So yes, America didn’t deserve 9/11, but you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves — to say, ‘oh well, what does that mean about what you think?’” El-Sayed said during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do, rather than this idea that we’re so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back,” he added.
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