Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat running for U.S. Senate, is facing a firestorm after leaked audio captured him telling campaign staffers he would not comment publicly on the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because, he said, too many people in Dearborn were "sad" about it.
The recording, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, came from what that outlet described as a campaign strategy session dated March 1. On the call, El-Sayed laid out a plan to dodge questions about the Iranian leader's killing during U.S. and Israeli military action, and pivot instead to personal attacks on Donald Trump.
The backlash was swift. Republicans, conservative commentators, and even a former Biden-Harris surrogate called the remarks a disqualifying window into where El-Sayed's sympathies lie, and what Michigan voters would be getting if he wins the Democratic primary on August 4.
In the recording, El-Sayed told his team plainly why silence on Khamenei was the play:
"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."
That alone would have drawn attention. But the audio went further. When discussing how to handle press questions, El-Sayed outlined a strategy to redirect toward attacks on the president. His words, as reported by Fox News Digital:
"I'm just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly. 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.'"
So the plan was clear: say nothing about the death of a regime leader responsible for decades of terrorism, hostage-taking, and proxy wars, and instead smear the sitting president with unsubstantiated personal attacks. That was the strategy session. That was what the candidate thought would work.
The New York Post reported that the leaked call also included El-Sayed criticizing Israel and AIPAC, with his own advisers expressing concern about some of his messaging. He reportedly planned to redirect any Khamenei questions toward discussions of Jeffrey Epstein.
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers did not mince words. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Rogers drew a direct line between El-Sayed's remarks and a broader pattern:
"Rather than empathize with the 140 kids whose lives were threatened in the Michigan synagogue attack, the thousands of Americans murdered by Iran, or the victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism around the world, he instead, chooses to empathize with the terrorists who committed these vile acts."
Rogers added that El-Sayed "continues to expose how extreme the Democrat party has become." He also pointed to the candidate's recent decision to team up with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who once said "America deserved 9/11."
That pattern of associations matters. El-Sayed is not a fringe candidate running a protest campaign. He is competing in a Democratic primary against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens to replace outgoing Sen. Gary Peters. The Cook Political Report rates the general election as a "toss up" heading into November. This is a seat that could determine control of the Senate.
The broader fractures within the Democratic Party on foreign policy and loyalty to party leadership have been on full display in recent months, as top recruits dodge basic questions about backing Chuck Schumer. El-Sayed's leaked remarks suggest the problem runs deeper than messaging, it's a matter of conviction.
The criticism did not come only from the right. Kevin Walling, a former Biden-Harris surrogate, posted a single word on X in response to the leaked audio: "disqualifying."
That word carried weight precisely because of its source. This was not a Republican operative or a conservative pundit. This was a Democrat who worked to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris saying the quiet part out loud: a Senate candidate who cannot bring himself to acknowledge the death of a terrorist-sponsoring dictator because his base might be upset has no business in the United States Senate.
Fox News radio political analyst Josh Kraushaar posted on X that the audio "speaks volumes about the level of extremism within the El-Sayed coalition here." GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno wrote that "Democrats have an abundance of riches to choose from when selecting which one of their Senate candidates is the craziest, most radical, and most anti-American." The Republican Jewish Coalition posted one word: "Disgraceful."
Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Jason Bedrick went further, posting: "Anyone who is sad that the Ayatollah is dead should be deported."
The intra-party tension El-Sayed's candidacy represents is not unique. Sen. John Fetterman's transformation from Democratic hero to party villain showed what happens when a member breaks from progressive orthodoxy. El-Sayed is the mirror image, a candidate whose instincts pull him toward the most radical elements of the progressive coalition, and who apparently cannot even celebrate the removal of a dictator without first checking how it plays in Dearborn.
When Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed's campaign for comment, the candidate did not offer a direct response. Instead, campaign lawyers at the Sandler Reiff law firm issued a statement to the Washington Free Beacon saying the recording "was obtained without the campaign's permission and without knowledge that individuals were being recorded." The campaign said it was "considering legal options."
Note what was missing from that response: any defense of the substance. No explanation of why a U.S. Senate candidate would refuse to acknowledge the death of a regime leader who oversaw attacks on American troops, the funding of Hezbollah and Hamas, and the repression of millions of Iranians. No clarification of why Dearborn residents being "sad" about Khamenei's death should shape a candidate's public posture. No retraction of the plan to deflect with baseless personal smears against the president.
Just lawyers. Just threats. Just process complaints about how the audio got out, not what was on it.
That response tells you everything. The campaign's concern is not that their candidate said what he said. Their concern is that the public heard it.
Dearborn, Michigan, is home to one of the largest Arab-American and Muslim populations in the United States. It is a politically significant community, and any serious candidate for statewide office in Michigan must engage with it. That is not the issue.
The issue is what El-Sayed's calculation reveals about the coalition he is building. A candidate who believes he cannot even acknowledge the death of Iran's supreme leader, a man whose regime hanged dissidents, crushed women's protests, and armed militias that killed American soldiers, because some voters are "sad" is not leading. He is pandering to the most extreme edge of his base.
Fetterman's willingness to break with the progressive wing on policy earned him fierce criticism from the left. El-Sayed appears determined to do the opposite, to never break with the most radical voices in his coalition, no matter the cost.
And the Piker connection only reinforces the point. El-Sayed recently agreed to team up with a streamer who said "America deserved 9/11." Rogers framed it bluntly: "Each time you think the Democrats can't get lower, they pick up the shovel and keep digging."
Michigan's Democratic Senate primary on August 4 will be a test of where the party's center of gravity actually sits. El-Sayed faces McMorrow and Stevens, both of whom represent more conventional Democratic politics. The outcome will signal whether Michigan Democrats want a candidate who aligns with the progressive fringe or one who can compete in a general election the Cook Political Report already calls a coin flip.
The broader pattern of senators defying party expectations has reshaped the Senate landscape in recent cycles. El-Sayed's leaked audio suggests that if he wins the primary, Michigan's general election will become a referendum not just on policy but on whether voters are comfortable sending someone to Washington who treats the death of a terrorist-sponsoring dictator as a messaging problem to be managed rather than a moment of moral clarity.
Voters deserve to hear candidates say plainly what they believe, not what their lawyers wish they hadn't been caught saying on tape.
When a man running for the U.S. Senate cannot say out loud that the world is better off without a dictator, the voters of Michigan have all the information they need.
