Abdul El-Sayed got the question he spent March trying not to get, and he still would not answer it.
Wonder why that is?
Audrey Fahlberg asked him Thursday about a private campaign call the day after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. On that call, reported by Alana Goodman at the Washington Free Beacon, El-Sayed told his communications team he did not want to say anything about Khamenei at all, because a lot of people in Dearborn were sad.
Remember that? We do.
He also warned staff that reporters would try to bait them into conceding the strike was justified, and that the campaign should not take the bait. The moral high ground, in that version, was silence about the man who ran the regime that had just slaughtered its own protesters.
Months later, with a Senate race on the line, the follow-up was simple: does he regret those comments?
There hasn’t been much reporting follow up on @alanagoodman’s scoop about a private Abdul El-Sayed campaign comms strategy call following the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during which he said "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad" about his death So I asked him about it at an event this afternoon:
— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) October 8, 2026
El-Sayed treated the question like a personal insult. HOW DARE SHE?! He called it a dog-and-pony show, said it was not relevant to people’s lives, and pivoted to gas prices, grocery prices, and the claim that the war has devastated Michigan. He then aimed the reporter at Mike Rogers, accused his opponent of flip-flopping, and announced that he does not do the work of justifying wars just because somebody wants to ask about leaked audio.
Ask a smart question, he said.
The question was about his own words.
That is the tell.
El-Sayed talks about foreign policy constantly. His campaign built a strategy around not touching the death of Iran’s supreme leader because part of his base might be sad about it. When a reporter finally put that on the record in public, he did not walk it back, clarify it, or say the sadness was misplaced. He changed the subject and scolded the person who noticed.
He even wagged his finger at her, like she was in trouble.
Michigan voters can decide whether a Senate nominee who will not talk about Khamenei in March, and will not talk about why in October, has a position or just a precinct map.
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