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Michigan’s Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel is voicing concerns about her party’s Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, saying his response to the attempted terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue appeared to make excuses for “domestic terrorism” as she warns about increasing anti-Israel sentiments in her party.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general since 2019, spoke at length in an interview with The Atlantic’s David Frum about her position that she doesn’t feel safe as a Jewish person attending her own state party’s convention due in part to “an enormous amount of anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party.”
Nessel specifically took issue with El-Sayed’s response to the synagogue attack in Michigan earlier this year where federal investigators say a gunman inspired and radicalized by Hezbollah crashed into the place of worship seeking to kill as many Jewish people as he could.
“But, you know, the reaction to it, obviously there’s a lot of people who were quick to call this out. But, you know, I think most concerning, of course, was the statement that our nominee for U.S. Senate made, which was that ‘hurt people hurt people,’” Nessel explained. “And a lot of us perceived that as sort of making excuses for somebody who sought to murder over 100 pre-K schoolchildren. And that’s the kind of mentality that bothers me a lot.”
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Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed claps during a press conference in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue on Aug. 5, 2026, in Detroit. (Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
Nessel went on to reflect on how she responded to the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre by visiting a Dearborn mosque, wearing a hijab out of respect and unequivocally condemning Islamophobia. She contrasted that response with El-Sayed’s reaction to the Temple Israel attack.
“I didn’t try to get into, like, what were the motivations of the person who killed these people, and did he have mental-health issues?” Nessel said. “Did he have bad experiences with Muslims? I just condemned it unequivocally, and I think that’s what people should have done with Temple Israel. You can’t make excuses for that kind of domestic terrorism.”
Nessel credited El-Sayed for his outreach to Jewish leaders in recent months, but expressed the belief that he should publicly retract his comments in the aftermath of the attack.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel accused the Democratic Party of allowing members accused of antisemitic acts to attend the upcoming convention. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“I think privately, he will say that he regrets having made those remarks,” Nessel said. “But here we are, it’s almost the end of of August, and he still has not withdrawn those statements and said, I misspoke, or, I now recognize the harm that I caused by making those statements. And it has me concerned that he really stands by them.”
Nessel urged El-Sayed to acknowledge he was wrong, listen to Jewish stakeholders and publicly change course, as she said she has done when confronted with her own past ignorance. She said she has also urged him to better understand Jewish religious beliefs, pointing to his post-primary reference to “breaking bread with Jews at Passover,” when bread is intentionally not eaten during the holiday.
“But I asked, could you learn a little bit more about our religion so that you understand it?” Nessel said. “Could you learn a little bit more than maybe what your bubble is telling you about the history of Israel and its relationship to the Jewish people?”
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“Because now, when I speak to him, there seems to be a real dearth of like, again, historical knowledge, political knowledge, and religious knowledge about all of those things. And again, I leave room for the fact that all of us have the opportunity to learn more.”
Nessel made it clear that she is not planning to support the state’s Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, and that she would “amputate [her] right arm” before voting for him because “keeping a Republican majority in the Senate is incredibly dangerous.”
“With Abdul, I will say this: We have a lot in common in terms of our general beliefs and principles and policies,” Nessel said. “And I think it’s important to say that, and I think it’s important to underline and underscore that fact. Trust me; I have much more in common with Abdul El-Sayed than I do with Mike Rogers in terms of my personal beliefs, my political beliefs, my philosophical beliefs about what should happen in the United States, and in the United States Senate.”
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
In March, El-Sayed released a statement in addition to his controversial video statement that Nessel took issue with, saying he was “horrified and heartbroken” to learn of the synagogue attack.
“To my Jewish sisters and brothers, you have a right to worship in peace,” El-Sayed said. “You have a right to send your kids to the synagogue in the morning and know they’ll come home safely at night. And you have a right to know that your religious identity and faith practice are respected. There is no room for antisemitism in America. So today and everyday, I am standing in solidarity with all of us who value our right to pray how we choose to pray against antisemitism and hate in all its forms.”
El-Sayed has faced broad criticism from Jewish groups, fellow Democrats and Republicans over his repeated attacks on Israel and AIPAC, as well as his public association with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.