Tom Cotton Corrects Post Claiming El-Sayed Said America ‘Deserved’ 9/11

(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was called out Thursday for misattributing a quote that America “deserved” 9/11 to Michigan progressive candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed (D), before correcting his mistake.

Cotton had taken El-Sayed’s Republican opponent Mike Rogers’s (R-MI) lead, who posted Wednesday, “I spent my life hunting terrorists. I never in a million years thought I’d hear the words, ‘America deserved 9/11,’ but here we are. Michigan — we’ve got a state to save.”

Cotton parroted Rogers’s post, writing that El-Sayed “proudly said America deserved 9/11,” before adding, “The Islamic-Marxists truly are taking over the Democratic party.”

Semafor’s David Weigel pointed out the error, adding that the quote was actually attributed to controversial left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who made the comment, “America deserved 9/11,” during a livestream in August 2019.

“Following Rogers, Cotton inaccurately attributes the “America deserved 9/11” line to El-Sayed; not Piker, who said it. I don’t think Rs are in a Politifact-watching mood here. More of a ‘make the SOB deny it’ mood,” Weigel wrote.

Cotton finally realized his mistake and changed the post to read that El-Sayed “proudly campaigns with extremists who say America deserved 9/11.” Rogers’s erroneous post remained up on X as of Thursday afternoon.

El-Sayed was seen at a party with Piker the day before the crucial Democratic primary, the El-Sayed ended up narrowly defeating Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), no friend to the far-left,  taunted El-Sayed while talking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“And now, El-Sayed, he just — he just won, you know. And I just want to issue a dare, continue to campaign with Hasan Piker right now. You’re in a general election now, I dare you, I dare you,” Fetterman said. “Keep campaigning with someone like Hasan Piker. You know, if I was a Republican, I would just dump $20 million for ads.”

El-Sayed has defended campaigning with Piker, saying he wants to reach out to Piker’s 10-million-plus fans online.

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