Claim: U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee from Michigan, said he believes America deserved the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A rumor spread online in August 2026 that Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, said he believed America deserved the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Piker walked back his comment that "America deserved 9/11" shortly after he made it. To investigate the veracity of the rumor, we first searched the keywords "Abdul El-Sayed said America deserved 9/11" on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. However, Piker, who campaigned for El-Sayed in 2026, did say these words in August 2019 while live-streaming on his personal Twitch channel:"America deserved 9/11, dude," Piker said.