Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha criticized Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed for failing to denounce Iran’s regime after being questioned by a college student.
“This is like asking, ‘Oh, are you against cancer?’ ‘Yeah, I’m against cancer,’ like that’s how easy this layup was as far as condemning, obviously, the IRGC,” Concha said on Fox Business’s The Evening Edit Thursday.
The viral moment of el Sayed happened Wednesday at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, where University of Michigan students and community members gathered for the “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall.
One student pressed el Sayed about Iran.
“My cousin was hunted in the streets of Iran by the IRGC because her hijab wasn’t on right. My uncle was sentenced to die, received 50 lashings, by Ali Khamenei’s government,” the student said. “You say that you didn’t want to comment on Supreme Leader Khamenei’s death and that people in Dearborn were sad when he died.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during a joint U.S. and Israeli airstrike in February.
“That silence had a gaping hole in our community,” he continued. “I want to ask if you regret that silence,” the student said, followed by a lengthy response from el Sayed saying “we have turned ourselves into the world’s policeman.”
The student called out el Sayed for not answering the question.
“He is so petrified of losing that precious vote in Dearborn, Michigan, which obviously has a very large Muslim population, therefore, he is a coward,” Concha said.
“By being a coward, I think this is a moment in this campaign, where it’s basically a dead heat between the Republican Mike Rogers and el Sayed,” he added.
Mike Rogers, a former congressman and FBI special agent, is the GOP nominee running against el Sayed in the Senate race.
Concha said el Sayed’s refusal to denounce the Iranian regime “could really turn things south in a hurry.”
Concha argued that voters need to take candidates at face value.
EL SAYED’S IRAN AND 9/11 PROBLEMS KEEP GROWING
“These people are who they are, and in a state like Michigan that Donald Trump has won two times, it’s going to be hard for him to win statewide when this stuff keeps coming up,” Concha said.
“He keeps playing defense. When you’re playing defense, that’s when you lose elections,” he added.