Watch: El-Sayed Still Can't Condemn Dead Ayatollah Khamenei, Man Who Killed and Oppressed His Own People
After all this time, it’s still worth asking the question of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed: Whose side is he on?
I’m not just asking whether he’s a liberal. I’m asking whether he wants America to win, or if he’s one of those Democrats who only believes in America if it can be fundamentally changed to fit their own strange mold of good and evil.
In his case, the hard-left nominee in one of the oddest Senate races in many a year seems to have trouble distinguishing who’s the good guy in the Iran conflict, or whether the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — a despot who repressed his own people and murdered those who dissented — was worth condemning.
Yet again, on Friday, El-Sayed was asked about leaked audio where he discussed deliberately avoiding the subject while speaking in Dearborn, which is a Shia stronghold.
During the call with staff, El-Sayed noted that “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about Khamenei’s death, and “I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all.”
“Like, I don’t think it’s worth even touching that,” he added.
EXCLUSIVE:
Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told staffers he wanted to avoid taking a public position on the assassination of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad,” audio from a private campaign strategy meeting obtained by the Free Beacon shows.
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 30, 2026
During his appearance Friday, El-Sayed was asked by a reporter whether he regrets “the private comments you made on a leaked audio of a call, I think it was in early March, where you talked about the death of Ayatollah Khamenei and many people in Dearborn being sad that day.”
El-Sayed’s response was to say that reporters should give him questions he wants to answer.
Abdul El-Sayed gets angry when asked about whether he still mourns the death of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Abdul: “I’m not interested in talking about this, ask about healthcare instead.”
Reporter: “That’s weird, since you talk about foreign policy a lot.” https://t.co/DOXuYXfRYg
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 9, 2026
“I know your readers will get you clicks, but it’s actually not relevant to people’s lives. I’m just not interested in this dog and pony show,” he said.
“So I’m just gonna tell you: I think if you look at the legacy of this war — if you look at all that’s happened under war, the gas prices, the grocery prices, all that Donald Trump has done to devastate the lives of Michiganders because of this war — I think all of us regret that this war ever happened.”
“And if you — even Mike Rogers, who flip-flopped on this issue, doesn’t even know where he stands. He says the war needs to end,” El-Sayed continued.
“So you should go ask Mike Rogers what he thinks about this ridiculous war. But I don’t do the work of that — justifying illegal, ridiculous wars — because you want to ask me a question about a piece of leaked audio. Like, ask smart questions.”
The reporter then noted that his position on Iran was relevant, given that he frequently talks about foreign policy. But El-Sayed moved on to another reporter — who, presumably, he thought would ask him “smarter questions.”
The problem is that the smartest question is the one he can’t answer. And this shouldn’t be a difficult one to answer, since he’s big on foreign policy but can’t decide whether or not Israel or Iran is a bigger threat to the United States, including when asked by the moderator of his recent debate against Rogers:
Abdul El-Sayed REFUSES to say that Iran is a bigger threat than Israel…
…ON THE DEBATE STAGE. https://t.co/RcNkT3r37h
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 8, 2026
“I’m just going to say that that’s a ridiculous hypothetical because here’s what’s happening right now. Our ostensible ally, Israel, has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,” El-Sayed said.
“We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply. So this is a situation in which I don’t think we should be a part. I don’t want to be pushed into war by Israel.”
And he won’t even condemn the IRGC absent of Israel being involved in the equation. Here he is at a town hall last month:
This is insane. A young Iranian-American describes how his family has been hunted by the IRGC, cites tens of thousands of protesters reportedly killed by the regime, and asks Abdul one simple question: Will you condemn the IRGC?
Abdul refuses. https://t.co/zJprDlQuXd
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) September 24, 2026
No answer to the question. Again.
If you can’t say the IRGC is bad — a force that’s condemned as a terror organization, mind you — you’re not on America’s side.
And America shouldn’t let you change it to suit you, Mr. El-Sayed, because it will inarguably be for the worse.
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