Muslim leftist Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdulrahman El-Sayed said in a debate on Thursday that Iran and Israel — America’s top ally in the Middle East — are “both dangerous in their own way.”
El-Sayed, who is running against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), was asked at the debate in Grand Rapids who he thinks is a “bigger threat to the United States, Israel or Iran?” The Democrat called the question a “ridiculous hypothetical,” but proceeded to say both countries are “dangerous.”
“That’s a ridiculous hypothetical because here’s what’s happening right now: our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran. We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply. So, this is a situation in which I don’t think we should be a part,” he answered. “I don’t want to be pushed into war by Israel, and I don’t want to be in a war with Iran. I want our money spent here to buy schools and health care and child care here. I don’t understand why that is so inconceivable.”
El-Sayed went on to say he does not “consider an ally a country that takes us to wars we don’t need to fight, and I don’t want to be fighting wars we don’t need to fight.”
“I just think that makes both of them kind of dangerous,” he said.
Debate moderator, longtime political reporter and senior journalist for WOOD TV8, Rick Albin pressed El-Sayed to answer, saying, “I’ll ask one last time: Israel or Iran?”
“That’s, again, a ridiculous question,” El-Sayed replied. “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.”
Albin also asked El-Sayed if he would vote to provide defensive weaponry to Israel if the nation was attacked tomorrow by Iran or another state actor. El-Sayed did not reply yes or no but essentially indicated he would not vote to help Israel defend itself against a hostile enemy because he does not believe in tax dollars “buying weapons for other countries.”
“I’ve been absolutely clear. I want our tax dollars spent here to provide schools here … I want to make sure we’ve got good schools here and health care here. I want to make sure that we are taking care of people here. That is my priority,” El-Sayed said.
“You know, you asked a hypothetical question about being attacked by Iran, but let’s be honest about what happened here. Israel has pushed us to go to war in Iran. And of course, my colleague who thinks there’s a war for everything went right along with it. And here we are. Israel had clear war aims. They wanted us to go to war with them, and their war aims were what? The annexation of southern Lebanon? Ask yourself, are we safer because of that war? He wants unconditional support for a foreign government. I want unconditional support for kids in our schools, unconditional support for our health care, child care, things that he would vote to defund,” he continued.
Albin against pressed for a concise answer and asked whether El-Sayed would “provide defensive weapons for Israel?”
“I don’t want our tax dollars buying weapons for other countries,” the Democrat replied. “I don’t know what’s so hard about that.”
NewsNation and Nexstar’s WOOD-TV hosted Thursday night’s Michigan Senate debate.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.