Abdul El-Sayed Staffer Compares GOP Opponent Riding in Pickup Truck and Waving USA Flags to the KKK
A staffer for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) compared an ad from his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers — in which Rogers is seen driving around in a vintage red pickup truck and waving two American flags — to a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning.
Team El-Sayed’s Mason Pressler claimed the ad was dripping with racism in a Sunday X post.
The ad showed Rogers rolling down the road in the passenger seat of a classic Ford truck while Toby Keith’s “American Ride” blasts in the background. “Gotta love this American Ride!” Rogers captioned the clip on X, but Pressler didn’t love it.
“Mike Rogers’ campaign has the aesthetics of a 1960s white flight suburb and a KKK cross burning,” Pressler wrote.
The 20-year-old staffer reportedly joined the El-Sayed campaign as a “field organizer” in May, and he appears to have gotten a promotion since then, with the Michigan Democratic Progressives group on Facebook congratulating Pressler for becoming a “regional political manager” for the Democrat on Monday. The post included a picture of Pressler smiling wide as he stood next to El-Sayed.
Fox News Digital reported on Monday, “El-Sayed’s communications director, Roxie Richner, explained to Fox News Digital that Pressler’s views are not representative of the campaign as a whole because Pressler’s X bio explicitly states that his posts are his own opinions.”
Pressler’s post was condemned during a Tuesday morning segment on Fox Business.
“So Griff, driving a pickup with the American flag means you’re with the KKK?,” Anchor David Asman said to Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins, as he waved both arms in disgust. “Are you kidding me?!”
“Hating on pickup trucks in Michigan is like hating on cowboy boots in Texas,” Jenkins quipped. “It’s like hating on cheese in Wisconsin, it’s like hating on surf boards in Hawaii… this is reaching, really, a level of ridiculousness that no voter in is going to buy into.”
Watch above via Varney & Company.
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