On the eve of his final debate with Michigan Democratic Senate rival Haley Stevens, Abdul El-Sayed was busted by Politico for declaring at a recent donor meeting: “Ideally you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different.” A round of tut-tutting ensued as various Democrats denounced Sayed for uttering violent threats. By the time of the debate, which took place last night at the Fox 2 studio in Southfield, Michigan, Sayed was emphasizing that it was Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, not Stevens, that he was talking about.“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” Stevens quipped.
Sayed’s rebarbative remark testifies to a nasty streak that should hardly endear him to Michigan voters
The real issue, though, is the person Sayed will not put on a pike – Hasan Piker, the left-wing Turkish American political commentator who has averred, among other things, that America “deserved 9/11.” It doesn’t seem overly censorious to ask that Sayed sever his ties to Piker, who has spoken at one of his campaign rallies, but he doesn’t want to do that. Instead, Sayed has engaged in rhetorical flim-flam, suggesting that “this whole gotcha game, platform policing, cancel culture – I thought we were over it.” Get ogre it, in other words.
