Yesterday, we told you why Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed didn't say anything about the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei. He said people in Dearborn are sad about the death of the Iranian Islamic tyrant during a conference call with staffers. That audio leak also revealed that El-Sayed was going to play the Epstein card when confronted with questions he didn't want to answer.
"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," El-Sayed told his campaign team. He later added, "I'm just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly," in response to being pressed on the Ayatollah issue.
Now, El-Sayed's campaign is responding to the audio and doing exactly what he vowed to do: attack President Trump.
Abdul El-Sayed's campaign responds to this report: https://t.co/xzbW0CNoZY pic.twitter.com/MG257qJbbH
— David Wright (@DavidWright_7) March 30, 2026
The statement reads:
Since this illegal and unjustifiable war has started, we've watched 13 brave service members lose their lives. We've watched tax dollars wasted to raise gas prices. We're paying over a dollar a gallon more, making life even more unlivable. Americans are paying with their lives and livelihoods for a war MAGA swore they'd never take us into.
The fact that a rightwing news outlet may have illegally and unethically obtained a deliberation about how to talk about this by way of a disgruntled former employee is only a distraction. They're distracting from the fact that Donald Trump, Mike Rogers, the entire MAGA base doesn't want to talk about the pain their forcing us all into.
Michigan is a one-party consent state for recording, so the campaign's claim that this is illegal is bunk.
Michigan's a one-party state so "illegally" obtained is just as much BS as the rest of his response. https://t.co/nk4uEKhu63
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) March 31, 2026
And yes, the rest of the response is BS.
What a lying scumbag. Deport this terrorist sympathizer
— Bring on the asteroid impact (@ItsAsteroidTime) March 31, 2026
It seems like Dearborn has a lot of people who need to be deported.
Here’s a Michigan Imam Bassem Alsherra praising Ayatollah Khomeini. This video is from March 6th at the Al-Zahraa Islamic Center in Detroit
— Hola (@mostmodest2) March 30, 2026
“We were devastated by the loss of a great jurisprudent, a major religious authority, an exceptional leader, a devout worshipper and… pic.twitter.com/vvw2Erglrd
And Detroit, apparently.
Dodge dodge dodge pivot pivot pivot this is just a distraction from the real issue {change subject}
— Gavin Newsom or Bust! (@RoyDelfino) March 31, 2026
That's exactly what El-Sayed said he was going to do. We're just surprised he didn't mention Epstein this time.
This just sounds like the exact thing he and his comms team talked about in the clip lol
— Baron Samedi (@BaronSamedi92) March 30, 2026
It is, which proves they all have zero self-awareness.
Oof, dude got caught saying he couldn’t be publicly happy that Khamenei was dead because his voters prefer Khamenei and the Islamic Republic to America and his statement is “how dare you report on that when Trump is causing people pain”
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) March 30, 2026
Knowing Michigan they’ll vote for him… https://t.co/J3AXbw6uyx
Sadly, this is probably accurate.
As I suspected, the leaker was a campaign staffer who was disgusted by the conversation. https://t.co/UPUURKSdTH
— NickFrank40 (@NickyFrank30) March 30, 2026
Seems like it's not all sunshine and unicorns working for El-Sayed.
Dodging the ugly reality -- after hours of deliberation on how to respond. https://t.co/Un8CF1ddG9
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) March 30, 2026
It took hours for El-Sayed's campaign to come up with this, and it's not particularly insightful or effective.