A Super PAC backing Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is going straight for the jugular, releasing a hard-hitting new ad that accuses Democrat Abdul El-Sayed of giving “comfort” to the same hatred that fueled the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The ad, released Wednesday by Great Lakes HQ, opens with footage from 9/11 and reflects on how the country came together in its aftermath. It then pivots sharply to El-Sayed and his association with far-left streamer Hasan Piker.
“The hatred behind 9/11 did not disappear,” the ad’s narrator declares, before cutting to Piker saying America “deserved” the 9/11 attacks and, in a separate clip, “I f***ing hate America so much.” The ad then shows footage of El-Sayed campaigning alongside Piker.
“Abdul El-Sayed gives comfort to that hatred. He campaigns with it. He accepts money from it, and he justifies it,” the narrator continues.
WATCH: On the 25th anniversary of 911, GLCF has a special minute long TV ad airing in Detroit.
The same hatred that caused 911 still exists today. Abdul raises money from it, campaigns with it, and justifies it. pic.twitter.com/7qYuvTA9F0
— Great Lakes HQ (@GreatLakes_HQ) September 9, 2026
To support the “justifies” accusation, the Super PAC points to comments El-Sayed made following a March attack on a Michigan synagogue, when he said “hurt people hurt people.” El-Sayed later apologized, saying his remarks “may have been misconstrued to justify something I did not mean to justify.”
The ad closes with a pointed message tied to the 25th anniversary of the attacks: “25 years later we are being tested once again. This election, remember what is at stake.”
El-Sayed, who has President Trump-backed rival Mike Rogers running against him, has faced repeated criticism over his vocal opposition to Israel’s government and his continued alliance with Piker, whom he has declined to condemn despite disagreements between the two. “I want to reach out to his viewers,” El-Sayed told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe earlier this month, noting Piker commands a three-million-person platform even as the two diverge on certain issues.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new ad.
With the race heating up and national attention on Michigan’s Senate contest intensifying, the ad signals Republicans intend to make El-Sayed’s associations — and his response to extremist rhetoric — a central issue heading into the election.
