Priorities, priorities.
How to choose what matters most to voters in a state where Donald Trump won the last election, 49.7 to 48.3 over Kamala Harris? Would Americans worry more about Trump or a murderous foreign dictator that just ordered the massacre of 32,000 civilians protesting in the streets?
One leading Michigan Democrat chose the latter as his priority. Abdul El-Sayed, a leading contender for the nomination to the open US Senate seat, told his campaign that he would avoid discussing the demise of Iran's Supreme Leader. Instead, El-Sayed adopted the strategy that other Democrats have used during the war by painting Trump as a "pedophile" associate of Jeffrey Epstein. The Free Beacon's Eliana Johnson brought the receipts this morning:
Michigan's left-wing Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, told staffers he wanted to avoid making a public statement about the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—or taking any public position on it at all—because "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad" about his death, according to audio from a private campaign strategy call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
If reporters pressed him to take a position, he said, he would change the subject to Donald Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. "I'm just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly," El-Sayed said. "I'll just be like, 'Pedophile president decides that he doesn't like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.'"
His remarks came during a conference call with his communications team on March 1, during which the candidate and his communications team discussed his messaging on Operation Epic Fury. The previous day, Feb. 28, an Israeli airstrike killed the Iranian dictator, who, as president of Iran and then as the country's supreme leader starting in 1989, oversaw the murder and torture of political opponents inside Iran and deadly terrorist attacks against the country's enemies, including hundreds of Americans.
"I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don't want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don't think it's worth even touching that," El-Sayed told his campaign team.
Someone on the call must have prepared for the potential for explosive revelations. Johnson has a recording of the conference call, which would be legal in Michigan as a one-party consent state. The Free Beacon offers the relevant clips of El-Sayed's remarks, which are just as bad as advertised:
Remarkably, El-Sayed told his staff that they have "the moral high ground" in this instance by [checks notes] slandering Trump while avoiding the crimes of Iran's regime and its Supreme Leader. Bear in mind that this conversation took place less than eight weeks after the massacres of 32,000 Iranians in the streets, attempting to liberate themselves peacefully from one of the world's most oppressive regimes:
There is plenty more to read and hear at the Free Beacon, so click through and read it all. However, let's just include this argument from El-Sayed about the real villains being ... well, you can guess:
El-Sayed also proposed pivoting away from questions about Khamenei by attacking Israel and American pro-Israel groups.
"You know what benefits [from the war]? It benefits Israel, who has captured too many of our politicians through AIPAC contributions," he said.
El-Sayed has been competitive as a candidate for the Democrat nomination. The latest Emerson poll has him in third place in a close race:
A new Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey of the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan finds 22% support State Senator Mallory McMorrow, 17% U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, and 16% Physician Abdul El-Sayed. A plurality of voters (38%) are undecided ahead of the August primary.
“The first Emerson College survey of the race to replace retiring Senator Gary Peters finds a close battle between the top three candidates, McMorrow, Stevens, and El-Sayed,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “McMorrow’s strength is among voters over 60 (37%), while El-Sayed’s is strongest among voters under 30, with 24%; Steven’s support is relatively consistent among age groups.”
Oddly, RCP is only tracking Stevens as the potential nominee against projected GOP nominee Mike Rogers, even though she comes in second here. El-Sayed is no fringe candidate among Democrats; he is the darling of Democrat Socialists. His "people" are not just in Dearbornistan, but also on every college campus in Michigan and the Ivy League. These sentiments – and strategies – have become the mainstream in the Democrat Party, not the fringe.
Every Democrat on the ballot in Michigan should be asked whether they support El-Sayed's distraction strategy as a defense of the IRGC regime in Iran. In fact, that question should be asked of every Democrat on every ballot in the US. If that kind of accountability was required for Todd Akin's fumble on abortion, then it certainly should apply when it comes to defenses of regimes that made "Death to America" its motto.
