From the Washington Free Beacon: Michigan’s left-wing Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, told staffers he wanted to avoid making a public statement about the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—or taking any public position on it at all—because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about his death, according to audio from a private campaign strategy call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
If reporters pressed him to take a position, he said, he would change the subject to Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. “I’m just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly,” El-Sayed said. “I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.'”
His remarks came during a conference call with his communications team on March 1, during which the candidate and his communications team discussed his messaging on Operation Epic Fury. The previous day, Feb. 28, an Israeli airstrike killed the Iranian dictator, who, as president of Iran and then as the country’s supreme leader starting in 1989, oversaw the murder and torture of political opponents inside Iran and deadly terrorist attacks against the country’s enemies, including hundreds of Americans.
“I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don’t think it’s worth even touching that,” El-Sayed told his campaign team.
El-Sayed claimed the killed of Khamenei was in no way justified, and just kept going back to the US economy. He claimed Americans can’t afford to buy food and the assassination of Khamenei is just a “distraction”.
🚨UNCOVERED AUDIO
Terrorist sympathizer and Michigan U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul Mohamed El-Sayed:
“There are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So like, I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all.”pic.twitter.com/BxX7tzaqJt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 30, 2026
The report notes that Dearborn became the nation’s first Arab-majority city in 2023, and has the largest Muslim population per capita of any city in the United States.
Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud, also a Muslim and a Democrat, has called for the destruction of Israel, said Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack was “inevitable,” and falsely accused the Jewish state of bombing Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, the Free Beacon points out.
El-Sayed’s campaign has reacted to the leaked audio of their team’s phone call about how to avoid questions on Khamenei’s killing and how to pivot to attack President Trump instead. The campaign’s lawyer, David Mitrani, blasted out the following statement:
“I write to inform you that the audio recording that you base the below questions on was obtained without the campaign’s permission, and without knowledge that individuals were being recorded. The campaign is considering its legal options against the individual in question. Given these circumstances, the campaign expects that you will take this into account in determining whether to proceed with any reporting on this matter.”
Abdul El-Sayed, 41, was born in Michigan to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt. He is a progressive Democrat and a physician, and was executive director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the City of Detroit from 2015 to 2017. He resigned as health director in 2018 to run for governor in the 2018 election. Now he is seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate, to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Sen. Gary Peters.
Below is the full audio:
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who is also running for the same Senate seat, commented on the leaked audio, writing, “Abdul El-Sayed empathizes more with terrorists than their victims. This is what we’re up against.”
Abdul El-Sayed empathizes more with terrorists than their victims.
This is what we’re up against. pic.twitter.com/RwpoiSRskL
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) March 30, 2026
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) commented, “This left-wing lunatic refused to take a position about the strike that killed Khamenei because “a lot of people in Dearborn” were sad. The radical left will always sympathize with terrorists over Americans. People like @AbdulElSayed hate our country.”
This left-wing lunatic refused to take a position about the strike that killed Khamenei because “a lot of people in Dearborn” were sad.
The radical left will always sympathize with terrorists over Americans. People like @AbdulElSayed hate our country.https://t.co/AAUByErr9I
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) March 30, 2026
READ MORE from the Washington Free Beacon.
RELATED REPORT: U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed helped lead anti-police group, who organized protest that turned into deadly riot
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