El-Sayed’s ‘free’ Medicare for All pitch collides with resurfaced audio, mounting controversies

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has built much of his campaign around a promise to make health care available for all Americans without upfront costs, but resurfaced audio of him discussing an earlier version of his healthcare vision, along with a string of recent controversies, has drawn new scrutiny to his campaign in the race’s closing months.

El-Sayed’s campaign says he would extend Medicare “to every single American from cradle to grave without premiums, copays, or deductibles,” a pledge he has repeated on social media, where he’s said flatly there should be no premiums, copays or deductibles under his plan. But audio from a 2011 appearance on the podcast “Sense and Sustainability,” resurfaced this week, shows El-Sayed describing a healthcare system funded by charging wealthier patients more to subsidize expanded coverage for others, saying at the time that such patients would find their own costs only “marginally more expensive” rather than losing access altogether.

El-Sayed has faced separate controversy this month over his handling of the Sept. 11 anniversary and his ties to left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has appeared at his campaign events and previously said the U.S. deserved the 2001 attacks. El-Sayed posted a statement marking the anniversary saying no cause could justify “the murder of innocent civilians” but faced criticism after declining in a "Face the Nation" interview to specifically condemn Piker's past remarks, telling the interviewer she had raised the streamer three times. 

The scrutiny also revived a deleted 2021 post in which El-Sayed had drawn a rhetorical parallel between 9/11 deaths and the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said El-Sayed has always condemned terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks “unequivocally,” and called opponent Mike Rogers’ attacks bad-faith and misleading.

>> El-Sayed apologizes for ‘hurt people hurt people’ comment after Michigan synagogue attack <<

Separately, the Washington Free Beacon reported this week that a Michigan mosque where El-Sayed worships removed years of sermon videos from YouTube shortly after the outlet reported on their content. In one now-unavailable video, Imam Abdelhamid Algizawi of the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor eulogized former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “symbol of jihad.” 

Another removed sermon, delivered after El-Sayed's primary win, described the result as a major victory for Muslims and told congregants they had an obligation to back him. Algizawi has also preached against homosexuality in other sermons, a position El-Sayed does not share; he's said publicly that he supports the LGBT community. Neither El-Sayed, Algizawi nor the mosque responded to the Free Beacon’s requests for comment.

El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, faces Republican Mike Rogers in November for the seat being vacated by Sen. Gary Peters, who is set to retire.

The latest report on the race from The Hill/Emerson College Polling showed El-Sayed with 48% support among likely voters and Rogers with 46% support. The poll of 1,000 Michigan residents found that 4% remain undecided and 2% support another candidate.