<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/michigan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michigan</a> Democratic <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/senate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Senate</a> nominee <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/abdul-el-sayed/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Abdul el Sayed</a> apologized to a group of <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/jews/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jewish</a> voters on Saturday for a statement he made in March regarding a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4509827/michigan-synagogue-attack-terrorism-hezbollah/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hezbollah-inspired attack</a> on a synagogue in West Bloomfield.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">During an event hosted by the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, el Sayed stated, “If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. That’s not what I intended,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/29/us/politics/el-sayed-apology-jewish-democrats.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to</a> the <em>New York Times</em>. He faced criticism in the spring for saying in a <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2032529011646038257" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">video statement</a> that “hurt people hurt people” after a gunman drove a truck into the Temple Israel synagogue in what the FBI classified as a “targeted act of violence.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The gunman, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, drove through the synagogue with explosives and a rifle before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement on March 12. No injuries were reported, including among children attending the synagogue’s early childhood development program. Governor <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/gretchen-whitmer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gretchen Whitmer</a> later described the attack as “antisemitic” and attributed it to “hate, plain and simple.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While Whitmer and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/4491017/fbi-michigan-synagogue-attack-targeted-act-violence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">strongly condemned</a> the violence and urged Michiganders to denounce antisemitism, el Sayed received backlash for linking Ghazali’s actions to military tensions between Israel and Lebanon.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“As an epidemiologist, I’ve spent my career studying the worst things that happen to people to understand how to stop them from happening,” el Sayed said in his statement. “And I’ll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation while in medical school: Hurt people hurt people. Violence is a cycle. Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children, in an airstrike in Lebanon last week. They were innocent people. And then, in an evil act of displaced rage, he tried to take it out on innocent children who had nothing to do with the loss of the innocent children he lost, except that they share a faith.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I made a mistake,” he told the Jewish group on Saturday. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” El Sayed also mentioned, “no one deserves to have their pain trampled on.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">El Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, criticized him on Saturday, stating that el Sayed is “trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Abdul has had six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack,” <a href="https://x.com/MikeRogersForMI?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rogers said</a>. “Instead, he chose to surround himself with terrorist sympathizers and some of the most notable antisemites in the country. It’s too little, too late, Abdul.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">El Sayed has faced scrutiny over his views on Israel and his association with internet personality <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/hasan-piker/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hasan Piker</a>. He is among several socialist Democrats gaining prominence ahead of the November midterm elections.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">El Sayed and Rogers <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4699108/rogers-agree-debate-el-sayed-michigan-senate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently agreed</a> to an Oct. 8 debate.</p>