2026 United States Senate election in Michigan

Was skipping a September 15 Fox 2 Detroit event with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a mistake? Did leaving El Sayed alone on television cost him an opportunity to make his own case to Michigan voters? It's an important question because absentee voting begins September 24th.

Joining us now is USA Today columnist Ingrid Jocks, author of the column, Rogers could win Michigan Senate race, but he has to show up.

Good morning.

How are you?

And a lot of it relates to Hassan Piker, who is a prominent supporter, a California streamer, as Al-Sayed would now have it.

Can you walk us through how you're looking at the Michigan Senate race and the controversies around Abu Al-Sayed?

Yeah, right now, I think that the polling shows Syed with a slight advantage, but I do think that he has such toxic associations and has made such extreme and radical statements in the past that he could lose this thing.

You mentioned Hasan Piker, someone who has said that America deserved 9-11, someone who has said that he hates America.

Let's bring Cenk back in here, because we've got the 25th anniversary of 9-11 upon us very soon.

And the Michigan Senate race is getting closer by the day.

And of the backdrop of all this, we have this story about CBS running a story about old social media posts from Abdullah al-Said entitled, for Michigan Democrat Abdullah al-Said, September 11th commemoration invites scrutiny of past remarks, and it pointed to two deleted tweets.

And for those of you who haven't seen these, I want to just read them, because I think it's relevant to the debate we're going to have.

So why doesn't someone ask Mike Rogers to denounce uh uh benjamin netanyahu why do we have this absurd preposterous bigoted media that always attacks israel's critics and they and any american that dares defy israel they call an anti-semite i i look at this point tucker carlson candace owens etc are much kinder to muslims and and care about equality than mainstream media mainstream media is a million times more bigoted than tucker carlson ALL THEY EVER DO IS ATTACK MUSLIM CANDIDATES OVER AND OVER AGAIN, ALL FOR THEIR BELOVED ISRAEL.

SO SINCE THERE ARE ALMOST NO DEFENDERS OF ABDUL ALSAID IN MEDIA, I'M GOING TO DECLARE MYSELF AN UNSANCTIONED SURROGATE FOR ABDUL, AND I WILL TAKE ON ANYONE.

I WILL DEBATE ANYONE ON THIS MICHIGAN SENATE RACE.

MIKE ROGERS, has worked for Israel for 20 years, trying to drive us into this disastrous war for 20 years.

All right, Colin, let me start with you, because the criticism is Republicans are focusing so much on El Sayed and so much on DSA that they're actually fueling fundraising and attention before the general election.

Well, the Michigan Senate race was always going to be a marquee Senate race even before the rise of El-Sayed because it's one of those seats that if the Republicans are able to flip it, it's one of the few seats, a blue seat that can become red.

The Senate map and the Democrats' path to 51 becomes that much harder.

But you're right.

The number to reach us live this hour, 800-848-9222.

The Michigan Senate race.

He should have never have won the Democrat nomination.

But Dr. L. Abdul El-Sayed, scrubbing his old tweet, trashing America on 9-11. facing calls from Democrats to disavow you-know-who, far-left streamer, Hassan Piker.

And it, it is the story of this election at this point.

Like, the Michigan Senate race is not about affordability, it is not about Michigan, it's about fucking Israel and Hasan Piker-

Yeah

... because Democrats and Republicans alike are making it about Israel and Hasan Piker.

Because the party is doing nothing for them.

That's why this all is one big distraction.

I'm sure Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic leadership love that the Michigan Senate race has become about Israel and Hasan Piker, specifically Israel through Hasan Piker.

Right.

Another CBS News article, "Popular left-wing streamer Hasan Piker drew stiff criticism from prominent Democrats on Monday after arguing that some Jewish Americans' support for Israel is making antisemitism worse, leading one of his most prominent political allies, Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, to say that nobody speaks for him.

It's the latest controversy in the hotly contested Michigan Senate race to revolve around Piker, who campaigned with El-Sayed during the Democratic primary." That was from CBS News.

Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for US Senator from Michigan, spoke this past weekend at the state's Republican Party nominating convention in Mount Pleasant about his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, and Hasan Piker.

I want to talk a minute about his violent rhetoric.