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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accused a small group of Democratic leaders and donors Monday of being willing to see Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed lose, telling “Politico Playbook” that progressives threaten wealthy interests and the party’s approach to Israel as El-Sayed faces mounting scrutiny over his ties to far-left streamer Hasan Piker.
Sanders said the resistance extended to people at the top of the Democratic Party and its financial base.
“You’re talking about a small number of people who are at the head of the Democratic Party. You’re talking about the donor class…” Sanders said. “Are they less than enthusiastic about Abdul? Yes, they are.”
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Democratic strategist and former Biden White House chief of staff Yemisi Egbewole pushed back on Sanders’ framing, pointing instead to the party’s need to capture the Senate and El-Sayed’s responsibility to consolidate Democrats after narrowly defeating Rep. Haley Stevens in the primary.
“Dems want a majority in the Senate. El-Sayed apologized for his comments about the Temple Isreal attack and hasn’t campaigned with Hasan. No one is as caught up in this oligarchy business as Sanders is. Stevens lost. She endorsed Abdul. It’s now his job to win those voters,” Egbewole said.
RNC national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre rejected Sanders’ defense of El-Sayed in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday, arguing the Michigan Democrat’s record and associations made him unfit for the Senate.
“Abdul El-Sayed is a terrorist bootlicker who downplayed 9/11, pals around with a radical streamer who thinks our country deserved it, and whose mother worked for an organization that funneled money to Osama bin Laden to orchestrate it,” she said. “His presence in the Senate would absolutely pose a national security threat, and it’s no surprise that Democrats are losing their minds at Bernie for propping up another unelectable extremist.”
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Sanders, who backed El-Sayed throughout the primary, told Playbook that some Democrats viewed candidates like El-Sayed as challenges not only to wealthy political interests but also to U.S. policy toward Israel.
Sanders said those Democrats view El-Sayed and similar progressives as “a threat to oligarchy” and a “threat to American foreign policy and our continued support for the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel.”
The exchange came as El-Sayed attempted to move past renewed questions about Piker, who campaigned with him during the Democratic primary. Piker drew widespread Democratic condemnation this month after remarks about American Jews and Israel, with critics including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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Sanders declined to join those Democrats in focusing on Piker, instead dismissing the streamer’s controversies while accusing Republicans and the media of distracting voters from economic issues.
“Like every other podcaster in the world, he says dumb things that people should reject,” Sanders said.
El-Sayed similarly resisted repeated questions about Piker at the Michigan Democratic Party convention Saturday, where four reporters pressed him about the streamer. Fox News Digital previously reported El-Sayed campaigned and socialized with Piker during the primary.
“We’re in the state of Michigan. If you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you’re missing the boat,” El-Sayed said. “This is about affordability in Michigan. This is about seeing a doctor in Michigan. This is about Donald Trump’s disastrous policies in Michigan. That’s what I’m focused on right now.”
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El-Sayed also apologized Saturday for remarks he made following the March terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue. He had said, “Hurt people, hurt people,” following the attack, comments that drew criticism from Michigan Democrats, including Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“To anybody who feels like my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright,” El-Sayed said. “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context, and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”
An August Fox News poll showed Republican nominee Mike Rogers leading El-Sayed 51%-47%, within the survey’s margin of sampling error, while a subsequent AARP survey also showed the candidates locked in a margin-of-error contest. Fox polling found 91% of Democrats backed El-Sayed, compared with 96% of Republicans supporting Rogers.
Sanders urged El-Sayed to keep his campaign centered on economic concerns rather than the controversies surrounding Piker.
“Stay on the issues that impact working families in Michigan,” Sanders said. “Do that, you’re going to win — and I think he will.”
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