Michigan Democrat defends appearing with Hasan Piker, distances himself from podcaster's controversial remarks

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended his decision to appear with controversial podcaster Hasan Piker at an upcoming rally while distancing himself from the host's past remarks on 9/11 and the October 7 attacks during a "Fox & Friends" appearance on Tuesday.

"Of course I oppose rape. Of course I don't think 9/11 was justified," El-Sayed said, referring to past controversial comments made by Piker.

"[Just] because you appear with somebody, doesn't mean you agree with them on everything."

El-Sayed expanded on that argument by pointing to past controversial remarks made by President Donald Trump, saying that appearing alongside someone does not equate to endorsing all of their views.

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"When did we start bending to cancel culture? When did we start saying that cancel culture was okay?" he asked, arguing that those seeking to earn votes and "build America" should be willing to "go and talk to anyone anywhere."

Piker has drawn criticism in the past for controversial comments about both the September 11 attacks and the Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel, including remarks that appeared to downplay or justify the violence.

More specifically, Piker minimized reports of mass sexual assault during the Oct. 7 attacks, having previously argued that actions taken by the Trump administration helped create enough anger to inspire the atrocity.

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In one of his more widely criticized moments, Piker also said during a stream in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11."

After immense backlash, Piker said in an interview with The Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur that he "obviously" did not mean that America deserved the attacks and accused critics of not disregarding "the actual truth of what I was talking about," explaining the viral quote as a critique of U.S. foreign policy.

El-Sayed has consistently distanced himself from such remarks, insisting that he is speaking to Piker's audience in an effort to reach voters he might not otherwise connect with.

El-Sayed also explained his own controversial remark that he wanted to avoid commenting on the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of people in Dearborn who were "sad" about the development.

"Fast forward five weeks on, I think all of us are sad today. Our gas prices are up over a dollar, we're fighting a war that is taking service members' lives and we're paying our tax dollars to do it to the tune of a billion to $2 billion a day, so I think, all of [us] right now ought to be sad," he said in part.

When pressed further, El-Sayed told co-host Lawrence Jones he is "no apologist for any regime, including our own," but argued that "the end doesn't justify the means" when it comes to U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.

Fox News' Rachel Wolf and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.