RNC Chair Says El-Sayed Would Have Cheered 9/11 Terrorists
(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/13/2026) Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said on this week's edition of the MIRS Monday podcast that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed would have cheered the terrorists during the Sept. 11 attacks along with controversial internet personality Hasan Piker.
Gruters – a state senator from Florida – spoke with MIRS on Oct. 8, before that evening’s debate between Rogers and El-Sayed. He noted that El-Sayed's statement the day before regarding the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel didn't mention the victims.
“We live in a different reality,” Gruters said. "Even if you go back to 9/11, I would have said that Mike Rogers is the guy running to help people that were impacted on that day, and El-Sayed would be with Piker on the sidelines, cheering the terrorists on.”
In response to the comment, El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner said, "Abdul has always unequivocally condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks. Mike Rogers’ and his allies' attempts to misrepresent Abdul’s beliefs are bad-faith lies meant to mislead Michiganders.”
After hearing that statement, Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn), who is supporting El-Sayed's candidacy, said, “That statement is not only blatantly false and bigoted, it’s an attempt to distract from Mike Rogers’ own record. During his time in Congress, Rogers repeatedly voted against legislation to provide health care to the very 9/11 first responders who risked their lives to save others.”
Getting back to the Gruters interview, the RNC Chair was asked if the race’s rhetoric had gone too far amid accusations of communism, antisemitism and Islamophobia; Gruters said no.
“Because look who El-Sayed associates with. Listen, antisemitism is very real. This is a major problem, and 10 years ago if you said some of this, you’d be shunned,” Gruters said. “Now, El-Sayed’s bringing it out and parading himself with these radical individuals who should be nowhere near the mainstream.”
Gruters also accused the political left of pursuing a “communist utopia” in which government controls people’s lives. He predicted that “reasonable moderates” would surprise the country in November by rejecting what he described as radical ideas.
University of Michigan public policy lecturer Jonathan Hanson told MIRS that rhetoric in Michigan’s Senate race has escalated “to a surprising extent.”
Hanson described efforts to portray El-Sayed as dangerous and outside the mainstream as “a sign of desperation” by Rogers, who lost Michigan’s 2024 Senate race to Elissa Slotkin.
“It’s become clear that Donald Trump is a dead weight on the candidacy of Republicans, sort of across the board, and so they’re starting to shift ground on some of these issues,” Hanson said.
He said political attacks increasingly move beyond calling an opponent liberal or extremely liberal.
“We have to go all the way to communists and terrorists to make this increasingly alarmist rhetoric that somehow our nation’s fundamental safety and security is at risk because someone might support broader coverage of health insurance for everybody,” Hanson said.
However, Hanson also called El-Sayed’s decision to campaign with Piker an “unforced error,” saying the association has exposed the candidate to attacks over Piker’s comments.
He compared the controversy to the scrutiny President Barack Obama faced over sermons by his former Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Gruters’ comments preceded a contentious Oct. 8 debate in which Rogers repeatedly sought to associate El-Sayed and members of his family with extremist organizations. El-Sayed challenged Rogers to “Go ahead and say it.”
The dispute over campaign rhetoric continued Monday when MIRS reported that Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, and another attendee said Rogers sought support from Arab American community members at a 2024 Dearborn meeting, then asked them to keep the meeting quiet to avoid alienating Republican voters.
Hanson warned that portraying political opponents as threats can have consequences beyond the election.
“Whenever politicians start launching into extremist rhetoric about how the people they’re running against are dangerous or threats to us all, you do have to pay attention to the fact that there are people out there who hear this message and believe it and think they need to take action,” he said.
