Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers told Michigan voters they should get absolutely angry that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed failed to mark the Oct. 7 anniversary in their first debate.
Former Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers used the opening Senate debate to hammer his Democratic rival for staying silent on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel. Rogers said El-Sayed could not bring himself to acknowledge the pain and terror of that day.
Just The News reported that Rogers made the charge Thursday as the two nominees faced off ahead of next month’s midterms. The clash sets a sharp tone for a race already marked by fights over terror, foreign policy, and national loyalty.
Rogers put the failure in blunt terms for voters watching at home.
"Yesterday was October 7. This is why you should get absolutely angry. He could not bring himself to even acknowledge the pain, the terrorism, the rape, the murders, cutting off of women's breasts, putting children in ovens and killing them in front of their families."
El-Sayed interrupted to say he has condemned the initial attack. He did not put out a public statement on the anniversary the day before, according to the reporting.
Rogers followed the debate with a written statement on the anniversary itself. He described the Oct. 7 assault as the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and said more than 1,200 innocent civilians, including Americans, were killed by Hamas terrorists.
"Three years ago today, the world witnessed in horror the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Over 1,200 innocent civilians, including Americans, were killed by the hands of barbaric Hamas terrorists. This dark day is a sad reminder that evil exists all around us. And how we respond to evil determines how much it grows."
He tied El-Sayed’s record directly to that response. Rogers said the Democrat’s associations and past fundraising around the anniversary insult everyone who lost their lives that day.
"These are insults to everyone who lost their lives that tragic day. At a time when we especially need to turn the temperature down and stand alongside our Jewish friends and neighbors, he only spreads antisemitism and incites more violence."
The statement also highlighted El-Sayed’s friendship with Hasan Piker and accused the Democrat of fundraising off the massacre’s anniversary the year before. Those details matter in a state with a large Jewish community and fresh memories of antisemitic violence on campus and in the streets.
This is not the first time Rogers has pressed El-Sayed on national-security rhetoric. He previously branded the Democrat anti-American over resurfaced comments about 9/11.
The Michigan Senate contest has repeatedly returned to questions of how each man talks about America, its allies, and the enemies who attack them. Rogers has made clear he sees El-Sayed’s pattern as more than a scheduling oversight.
Voters will get a second look at both men on Oct. 21. That debate is the last scheduled face-off before Election Day. Rogers is treating the anniversary silence as a character test, not a calendar glitch.
El-Sayed has already drawn Republican fire for questioning Rogers’ Christian faith and for earlier sparring over Iran and terror. The Oct. 7 episode fits the same frame: whether a Senate candidate will name evil when it is convenient and when it is not.
Rogers has also enlisted the father of a Flight 93 hero to challenge El-Sayed’s past 9/11 rhetoric, keeping the pressure on how the Democrat discusses America’s enemies.
The Democrat’s donor list has faced separate scrutiny as well. Reporting has shown El-Sayed taking thousands from donors tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, adding another layer to questions about the company he keeps.
Rogers’ debate line was simple. The anniversary fell the day before. El-Sayed offered no public statement. When pressed on stage, the Democrat said he had condemned the original attack and left it there.
Rogers refused to treat that as enough. He walked voters through the specific horrors of Oct. 7, the murders, the rapes, the killing of children, and asked why his opponent could not mark the date out loud. In a race for the United States Senate, that gap is the story.
Earlier coverage captured El-Sayed sparring with Fox’s MacCallum over Iran and terror, showing the same foreign-policy friction now playing out on the debate stage.
Michigan voters will decide next month whether silence on the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disqualifying. Rogers is telling them it should make them angry. He is not whispering it. He is saying it on stage and in writing, with the victims’ suffering front and center.
A candidate who cannot plainly mourn murdered civilians on the anniversary of their slaughter has already told voters where his priorities sit. Michigan gets the final word.
