Tucker Carlson and Abdul El-Sayed side by side, both speaking at microphones.Tucker Carlson Breaks With Right to Defend El-Sayed's 9/11 Remarks
Intra-Party Split Detected
Tucker Carlson broke from mainstream conservative media (Fox News, Daily Wire, Washington Free Beacon, Legal Insurrection) by defending El-Sayed's 9/11 comments and urging voters to reject Republican nominee Mike Rogers, putting him at odds with most right-leaning coverage attacking El-Sayed.
Left says
- •El-Sayed's comments distinguished mourning American victims of 9/11 from acknowledging the far larger death toll of the subsequent U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a historically documented outcome rather than a fringe claim.
- •El-Sayed's campaign says he has unequivocally denounced terrorism and that attacks on him rely on decades-old, out-of-context statements while ignoring his actual policy platform on costs of living.
- •Despite a barrage of opposition research and media scrutiny, El-Sayed continues to lead or run competitively in polling, suggesting voters aren't swayed by the attacks.
- •Carlson's intervention shows that skepticism of the Iraq War's human cost and U.S. foreign policy legacy isn't confined to the left, cutting across the usual partisan lines.
Right says
- •El-Sayed's remarks calling to 'center' Muslims harmed after 9/11, rather than centering the roughly 3,000 Americans killed that day, reflect a troubling minimization of the attack itself.
- •El-Sayed's long record includes protesting ex-terrorists who converted to Christianity, promoting a debunked hate-crime hoax, past comments suggesting Muslims broadly resent non-Muslim Americans, and support for Sharia law, painting a consistent pattern rather than an isolated remark.
- •His close public association with Hasan Piker, who has said 'America deserved 9/11' and displayed 9/11 imagery as if a trophy, raises legitimate questions about the company he keeps and the values his coalition represents.
- •Tucker Carlson's defense of El-Sayed marks a significant break from mainstream conservative and Republican consensus, and Republicans like Mike Rogers argue that any framing which asks Americans to 'center' their own grief less is disqualifying for a Senate candidate.
Common Take
High Consensus- El-Sayed did make the specific 2021 podcast and social media comments about 9/11 that are now under scrutiny, and he did attend and speak at the 2026 ISNA convention.
- Tucker Carlson publicly defended El-Sayed's remarks in his Friday newsletter and criticized Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
- El-Sayed has ties to Hasan Piker, who has made controversial statements about 9/11 and America.
- The Michigan Senate race between El-Sayed and Mike Rogers is closely contested and nationally watched.
The Arguments
Left argues
El-Sayed's comments distinguished mourning American 9/11 victims from acknowledging the far larger, well-documented death toll of the subsequent U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is a historical fact rather than a radical or fringe position.
Right counters
Regardless of the accuracy of war-casualty statistics, explicitly framing 9/11 remembrance as something that should 'center' Muslims harmed afterward — rather than the roughly 3,000 Americans killed that day — trivializes the attack and reorders whose grief matters on its anniversary.
Right argues
El-Sayed's record shows a consistent pattern, not an isolated remark: protesting ex-terrorists' conversion stories, promoting a debunked hate-crime hoax, past comments suggesting Muslims broadly resent non-Muslim Americans, and support for Sharia law all point in the same troubling direction.
Left counters
Most of these episodes date back 10-20 years, and the campaign says El-Sayed has unequivocally denounced terrorism since; recycling decades-old statements while ignoring his actual platform on costs of living is a deflection from substantive policy debate.
Right argues
El-Sayed's close public association with Hasan Piker, who has said 'America deserved 9/11' and displayed 9/11 imagery like a trophy, legitimately raises questions about the values and coalition surrounding his campaign.
Left counters
Guilt by association is a weak standard in politics; candidates routinely receive endorsements or support from controversial figures without adopting every view those figures hold, and El-Sayed's own statements explicitly condemn terrorism.
Left argues
Despite an intense barrage of opposition research and media scrutiny timed to the 9/11 anniversary, El-Sayed continues to lead or run competitively in Michigan polling, suggesting voters are focused on cost-of-living issues rather than being swayed by these attacks.
Right counters
Polling holds up in part because many voters haven't yet absorbed the full scope of these revelations; as Mike Rogers argues, a candidate asking Americans to 'center' their own 9/11 grief less is disqualifying once fully understood, and the race remains close enough that this could still be decisive.
Right argues
Tucker Carlson's full-throated defense of El-Sayed — calling him 'obviously right' and arguing America's post-9/11 wars 'blew the original attack out of the water' — represents such a stark break from mainstream conservative consensus that it validates concerns about how far outside normal boundaries El-Sayed's rhetoric falls.
Left counters
Carlson's intervention actually demonstrates the opposite: skepticism of the Iraq War's human toll and U.S. foreign policy overreach isn't confined to the left, showing that El-Sayed's underlying point resonates across the political spectrum rather than being an extreme or fringe view.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If El-Sayed's point was simply that all deaths from 9/11 and its aftermath deserve acknowledgment, why did he choose the specific framing of saying Americans 'fail to center' the far larger number of foreign casualties, rather than simply calling for expanded remembrance without implicitly deprioritizing the 3,000 American dead?”
Left asks Right
“If invoking Tucker Carlson approvingly is meant to bolster the case against El-Sayed's 9/11 comments as fringe or dangerous, how does the right reconcile using a source they otherwise call a MAGA defector and unreliable, while simultaneously treating decades-old protest activity and hoax-promotion by El-Sayed as permanently disqualifying regardless of context or subsequent statements?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Hasan Piker represents a genuine left fringe (roughly 5-10% of the left) with statements like 'America deserved 9/11' that even most Democrats and progressives explicitly reject; mainstream Democrats and outlets like The Nation are careful to distance El-Sayed from Piker's rhetoric while defending El-Sayed's actual statements as more measured.
Right Fringe
Tucker Carlson himself is the notable right-fringe outlier here (perhaps 10-15% of the right, mostly younger populist/anti-interventionist conservatives), breaking sharply from Mike Rogers, Fox News, and mainstream GOP consensus that El-Sayed's remarks are disqualifying; most Republican voters and officials view Carlson's take as a significant departure from conventional conservative orthodoxy on patriotism and 9/11.
Noise Assessment
High—much of this story is driven by opposition research cycles, viral clips, and influencer culture-war dynamics (Piker, Carlson) rather than reflecting how most ordinary voters process the story; polling suggests the race itself remains close and largely unmoved by these attacks, indicating the discourse intensity outpaces actual persuasion or opinion shift among the electorate.
Sources (8)
Welcome to Michigan in 2026. Patriotism is frowned upon. 9/11 is treated like a branding problem. Terrorists are the victims. And the most skin-crawling endorsement in the state’s Senate race came from a flannel-loving, fastidious fart who thinks 3,000 murdered Americans is, like, not that bad, because the bodies would barely fill a Division III ...
Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed led a 2007 University of Michigan protest against ex-terrorists who discussed converting to Christianity.
Muslim voters at an ISNA conference say they plan to back Abdul El-Sayed despite opposing his abortion and LGBTQ stances, citing Trump betrayals.
MAGA’s most prominent defector railed against the Democratic Senate candidate’s critics who have been trying to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer.
<p>Tucker Carlson: "Your typical Fox News viewer is likely oblivious to this, but America's response to 9/11 blew the original attack out of the water."</p> The post <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/09/tucker-carlson-sides-with-abdul-el-sayed-over-9-11-remarks/">Tucker Carlson Sides With Abdul El-Sayed Over 9/11 Remarks</a> first appeared on <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com">Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion</a>.
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed falsely claimed in a 2012 essay that an Iraqi refugee in California was brutally murdered in an anti-Muslim attack because she had the
<p>John Nichols</p> <div><img alt="" src="https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26231679923911.jpg" /></div> <div> <div class="wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek"> <p>With energetic campaigning and savvy responses to the media’s Hasan Piker obsession, the Michigan Democrat is maintaining solid poll numbers.</p> </div> </div> <p>The post <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/abdul-el-sayed-polls-michigan-race/">The Right-Wing Attacks on Abdul El-Sayed Keep Faltering</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.thenation.com">The Nation</a>.</p>
<p>Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed falsely claimed in a 2012 essay that an Iraqi refugee in California was brutally murdered in an anti-Muslim attack because she had the "courage to wear a Hijab." In truth, Shaima Alawadi's husband killed her in an act of domestic violence that he staged to look like a hate crime.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/abdul-el-sayed-promoted-infamous-hijab-hate-crime-hoax-despite-warnings-from-police/">Abdul El-Sayed Promoted Infamous Hijab Hate Crime Hoax, Despite Warnings from Police</a> appeared first on <a href="https://freebeacon.com"></a>.</p>