EAST LANSING, Mich. — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed vowed not to "back down" in the face of criticism from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as he made a set of campaign stops with left-wing commentator Hasan Piker. Piker, who has a substantial social media following and is known for his videos on the streaming service Twitch, once remarked that the U.S. "deserved" the Sept. ...

Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a campaign event for his bid for U.S. Senate in Michigan, at the University of Michigan on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Katy Kildee/The Detroit News/TNS

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed vowed not to "back down" in the face of criticism from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as he made a set of campaign stops with left-wing commentator Hasan Piker.

Piker, who has a substantial social media following and is known for his videos on the streaming service Twitch, once remarked that the U.S. "deserved" the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. And on Tuesday morning, he posted on X that Republican President Donald Trump "is Adolf Hitler."

El-Sayed, a doctor from Ann Arbor, told reporters before his appearances with Piker on Tuesday night that condemnation is what people do when they're losing an argument and that he was taking his "campaign to the folks who've felt locked out for a very long time."

A couple hundred people filled a lecture hall on Michigan State University's campus to hear from El-Sayed, Piker and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. The rally at MSU came before another one at the University of Michigan.

The East Lansing version was raucous with statements in opposition to Trump's war against Iran drawing loud applause from an audience that featured many students.

"Look. We came through it the last couple weeks. People tried to tell us all, 'You can't possibly appear with certain people ... You can't do it ... That's not OK,'" El-Sayed said. "But we don't back down."

"When they tell us who we can and can't talk to, we don't back down."

El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat, spoke in front of signs that touted his priorities of getting money out of politics and providing access to health care coverage for all U.S. residents.

On Trump's war with Iran, El-Sayed said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been wanting to go to war with Iran and had "finally found a dumb-ass dumb enough to do it."

"All of us love and revere our Jewish neighbors ... and Judaism," El-Sayed said. "Because we love and revere people, which is exactly why we will not sit idly by while ... tax dollars go to fund a genocide on behalf of a foreign government."

Trump's administration has contended the war is about preventing Iran from possessing nuclear weapons and from threatening the U.S.

For his part, Piker told the crowd that every dollar that is spent to blow up a school or a bridge overseas is a dollar "stolen from you."

"That is real theft," Piker said. "And we say enough is enough."

Piker labeled El-Sayed a "fighter" and an "incredible politician" during the event. He said "f--- them" about some of his critics and also called out El-Sayed's Democratic primary opponents, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak.

"A lot of prominent Democrats ... instead of developing the appropriate response to Donald Trump's mania, chose to repeat what corporate donors and foreign lobbyists and big donors had told themselves," Piker said before mentioning Stevens and McMorrow.

The event came the same day Trump threatened, in a social media post, that "a whole civilization will die tonight" before later announcing a two-week ceasefire against Iran.

It also occurred 119 days before the Democratic primary election, in which Democratic voters will pick a nominee for the U.S. Senate to replace departing Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township.

The likely Republican nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, called El-Sayed's appearances with Piker "disqualifying" in an interview Tuesday. McMorrow and Stevens previously criticized the events.

"It's certainly not someone I'd be campaigning with," Stevens said of Piker on Monday.

"I am worried about the Democratic Party," Rogers said.

On the "disqualifying" comment, Piker fired back, saying it was Rogers' affiliation with the Republican Party that was disqualifying.

"If you've got a rubber stamp for Donald Trump's agenda, I think the people of Michigan are already very aware that it hasn't been very beneficial for them at all," Piker said, before delivering his speech. "So any vote in that direction is going to be devastating."

Multiple attendees at the MSU event said they didn't agree with everything Piker had said but argued that the controversies might reflect misunderstandings about how streamers operate.

Some of Piker's remarks, cut down to a few seconds for viral clips, were made during eight-hour streams with larger contexts and arguments, said Mohammed Alyaqoub, a 26-year-old from DeWitt.

"I know where I disagree with him," Alyaqoub said.

Noelle Ottesen watches videos from Piker on YouTube and had learned about injustices from him, the MSU student said.

"I've learned a lot from him," Ottesen said.

Ottesen compared Piker to TV commentator Rachel Maddow but said Piker works through a different medium.

Ahead of the event Tuesday, MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and the MSU Board of Trustees issued a statement, saying universities "have a role in supporting free speech and encouraging diversity of thought."

"At the same time, we recognize that recent comments attributed to a speaker coming to campus, who the university did not invite, have caused pain and concern, particularly among members of our Jewish community," the statement added. "Antisemitism and discrimination of any kind is unacceptable and inconsistent with our institutional values and has no place in a community grounded in respect, inclusion and dignity."

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