Overview
- Republican Mike Rogers publicly said his Democratic opponent believes the United States “deserved 9/11,” and the NRSC ran digital ads repeating that line as part of general election messaging.
- Independent fact‑checkers including PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, Snopes and The New York Times found no evidence that Abdul El‑Sayed ever said or endorsed that claim and rated the attribution false or unproven.
- The Rogers campaign told fact‑checkers it based the attack on a clip of El‑Sayed declining to broadly “disavow people’s views” at an April campaign event, but the campaign did not supply direct evidence that El‑Sayed endorsed the 9/11 remark.
- Abdul El‑Sayed has publicly told television interviewers that he does not think 9/11 was justified, creating a factual record that contrasts with his refusal at one event to engage in broad disavowals.
- The episode shows how ties to high‑profile online figures can be weaponized in tight races and signals that ad buys and rapid fact‑checking will shape how voters hear this claim in the Michigan Senate contest.