Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed sidesteps Tapper on Dearborn remarks
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Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed dodged questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday after he confronted him for past remarks in Dearborn, Michigan, that suggested “a lot of people” were saddened by the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tapper noted the voice, which was first highlighted by the Washington Free Beacon at an event held shortly after Khamenei’s death during the US-Iran conflict. There are “a lot of people in Dearborn who are upset,” El-Sayed said in the recording.
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The Michigan Senate candidate on Sunday also called America’s political system a “disease” just after professing his love for the country where he grew up. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
“I thought that quote was interesting because the Ayatollah has killed tens of thousands of innocent Iranians, not to mention his Iranian-funded proxies who are killing innocent civilians all over the Middle East,” Tapper said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Why were you worried about offending people who support the Ayatollah?”
Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the Muslim progressive running to succeed El-Sayed, declined to answer the question directly; instead, he criticized Tapper for revisiting his past remarks instead of focusing on the U.S.-Iran conflict and its impact on Michigan.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei died on February 28, 2026. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Jake, on a day when we mourn the loss of two more of our soldiers in a war we should never have fought, I think we should all take a step back and ask whether everyone in Michigan, and frankly everyone in America, shouldn’t be upset that this president, backed by the prime minister of a foreign government, is taking us into a war that is not ours to fight,” he said.
He argued that Tapper should instead have asked about the recent deaths of U.S. soldiers in the Middle East (which Tapper mentioned at the beginning of his question) and whether the Iran conflict should have occurred and the economic impact of the war on Michiganders.
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“I’m running for the Senate in Michigan, and all of us here in Michigan are sorry that we’re fighting a war that we probably should never have fought,” El-Sayed said.
“I’d rather our money be spent here,” he said.
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Tapper responded: “I was specifically asking you about comments you didn’t want to make because you didn’t want to offend people in Dearborn, Michigan.”
