Progressive Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, apologized on Aug. 29 for comments he made in March after an armed assailant drove into a Detroit-area synagogue and opened fire.
El-Sayed, who edged out establishment candidate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in the Democratic primary earlier this month, apologized to the state’s Jewish Democratic Caucus for linking the local attack to Israel’s actions in the Middle East.
“My comments may have been misconstrued to justify something I did not mean to justify,” El-Sayed told reporters Saturday in Lansing.
“To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.”
The former Wayne County health director initially released a statement that attempted to link the actions of the shooter, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, to events that impacted Ghazali’s family in the days leading up to his attack.
“Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children, in an airstrike in Lebanon last week,” El-Sayed said in his statement back in March.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that Ghazali’s brother, who was killed in the Lebanon strike, was a Hezbollah commander.
In a March video statement, El-Sayed said: “Ayman Ghazali hurt people.”
“There is no justification for what he did. It was wrong and he never should have done it. Hurt people hurt people. A week earlier, an airstrike killed his niece and nephew. Imagine if that had never happened. Imagine there was no war in Iran. Imagine if there were no airstrikes in Lebanon. Imagine if his family had never died. Imagine there was never an attack on Temple Israel. That’s the world that we want to live in. That’s the world we need to build for.”
Ayman Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the synagogue attack. A security guard, who Ghazali hit with his car, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
At least 30 law enforcement officers went to the hospital for smoke inhalation caused by the burning car.
No children or staff were injured.
El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers, a former U.S. Representative, for the open U.S. Senate seat held by U.S. Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, who did not run for reelection because he wanted to pass the job to the next generation.
“I always knew there would come a time to pass the torch to the next generation of public servants and allow them the opportunity to bring fresh energy and ideas to our nation’s capital,” Peters said when he revealed he was not running for reelection in January 2025.
“Our founding fathers envisioned members of Congress as citizens serving their country for a few terms and then returning to private life. I agree. After three terms in the House and two terms in the Senate, I believe now it’s time for me to write a few more paragraphs in my current chapter and then turn over the reins.
The Cook Political Report has rated the race between El-Sayed and Rogers as a “Toss Up.”
Five out of six polls taken in August show El-Sayed with a slight lead, while one poll from Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Research shows Rogers with a slight lead.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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