Michigan Dem El-Sayed Dodges When Jake Tapper Confronts Him About Saying People Were ‘Sad’ Over the Death of the Ayatollah

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) dodged CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday when asked why he said a lot of people were upset right after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed.

El-Sayed ducked Tapper’s question during an interview on State of the Union.

Tapper pointed to a report from the Washington Free Beacon in March, which obtained audio of the liberal candidate saying “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” the ayatollah was killed at the start of the Iran war; Dearborn is home to a large Muslim population and where the biggest mosque in the USA is located. El-Sayed also said in the audio he did not want to comment on the matter further because he did not feel it was worth it.

“I thought that quote was interesting, because the ayatollah has killed tens of thousands of innocent Iranians, not to mention the proxies that Iran has funded that have killed innocent civilians all over the Middle East,” Tapper said. “Why were you worried about offending people who support the ayatollah?”

El-Sayed shook his head and smirked as Tapper asked the question. He then proceeded to not answer it — and instead opted to bash President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Jake, on a day where we’re mourning the loss of two more service members in a war we never should have fought, I think all of us should step back and ask in Michigan — frankly everyone in America — that this president, backed by a prime minister of a foreign government, took us to a war we had no business fighting in.

“So yeah, I didn’t want to comment on it then, because it’s a ridiculous pretext. And now you’re asking about the ayatollah, who’s dead, by the way, and you’re not asking me about the service members who died.

He continued ranting a bit more about Tapper not asking him the question he would have liked.

“I was specifically asking you about comments you didn’t want to make because you didn’t want to offend people in Dearborn, which is in Michigan,” Tapper told him, once his non-answer was finally done. Tapper then pivoted to asking him about immigration policy.

El-Sayed’s appearance on CNN comes as he is locked in a tight Senate race with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). He has been a frequent guest on cable news lately — and his comments have been talked about quite a bit as well.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) ripped El-Sayed on Fox News on Saturday for claiming Israel was just as “evil” as Hamas, among other gripes he has about Israel. Fetterman then said he was worried about a new Pew poll showing 44% of American Muslims support Hamas; the senator said he could not believe El-Sayed has not acknowledged the poll yet.

Watch above.

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