BS BULLETIN:
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Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly refused to say whether Iran or Israel poses the greater threat to the United States.
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Debate moderator Rick Albin pressed him three times, prompting El-Sayed to call the question a “ridiculous hypothetical.”
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Republican Mike Rogers challenged El-Sayed over his Israel positions and his response to the October 7 Hamas massacre.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was asked a fairly straightforward foreign-policy question Thursday night: Which country poses a greater threat to America, Iran or Israel?
Three opportunities later, he still hadn’t picked one.
During a heated debate with Republican Mike Rogers, moderator Rick Albin revisited a question El-Sayed had previously dismissed during a NewsNation interview.
“We got the part that you thought it was dumb, but we didn’t understand or kind of get to that answer,” Albin said, asking him again to choose between Israel and Iran.
El-Sayed wasn’t having it.
“That’s a ridiculous hypothetical,” he replied, accusing Israel of lobbying Washington into the war with Iran and arguing that American money should be spent on schools, healthcare and childcare instead.
He described Israel as America’s “ostensible ally” and said he didn’t consider a country an ally if it pushed the United States into unnecessary wars.
Albin tried one final time.
“I’ll ask one last time, Israel or Iran?”
El-Sayed answered: “That’s again a ridiculous question. I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way. One at risk of attacking us, one getting us into wars we have no business fighting.”
The exchange came as El-Sayed faced questions about his opposition to American military assistance to Israel.
Asked whether he would support sending defensive weapons if Israel were attacked, El-Sayed said he opposed using American tax dollars to subsidize foreign wars.
Rogers, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, defended Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.
The Republican also challenged El-Sayed over his response to the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 massacre, accusing him of failing to acknowledge the victims.
“I’ve condemned that,” El-Sayed responded, accusing Rogers of turning the tragedy into political theater.
The debate grew increasingly personal, with the candidates exchanging accusations over campaign finances, foreign policy and their respective records.
At one point, the arguing continued through a commercial break.
“In 30 years of doing debates, I’ve never seen it continue during the commercial,” Albin remarked.
The two are competing for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. El-Sayed, a former public health official, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary.
Rogers has also distanced himself from portions of Trump’s agenda, criticizing tariffs on Canada and calling for a quick end to the Iran war.
But Thursday’s most revealing exchange wasn’t about Trump.
It was about a Senate candidate who was willing to describe both Iran and Israel as dangerous but unwilling to say which posed the greater threat to his own country.
