Tucker Carlson just injected himself into one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races — and he did it by defending the Democrat.
The former Fox News host has come to the defense of Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, while sharply criticizing El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
Carlson did not issue a formal endorsement of El-Sayed, an important distinction in a general-election contest.
What he did say was still striking. Carlson defended El-Sayed’s controversial remarks about the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, said he would not vote for Rogers, and urged Michigan voters to keep the Republican nominee away from Washington.
Tucker Carlson backs Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race
Tucker Carlson also defended Abdul El-Sayed’s comments about 9/11 pic.twitter.com/e8qq0hGQXQ
— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) September 12, 2026
According to Mediaite, Carlson used his September 11 newsletter to argue that El-Sayed’s critics were misrepresenting a 2021 discussion about the human cost of the wars launched after 9/11.
In that earlier audio, El-Sayed said the attacks scarred the United States in profound ways, but that the American response also scarred millions of people overseas. Rogers called that view disqualifying and said Americans should not be told to redirect their grief.
Carlson rejected Rogers’ interpretation. He argued that El-Sayed was criticizing the Iraq War and the broader post-9/11 military response, not defending the hijackers or celebrating al-Qaeda.
He then turned his fire directly on Rogers, questioning the former congressman’s judgment and saying Michigan voters should keep him far from Washington.
This was not Carlson’s first intervention in the race.
During an earlier conversation with Breaking Points host Saagar Enjeti, Carlson said he would not vote for Rogers “at gunpoint.” Enjeti described parts of El-Sayed’s campaign message — particularly his opposition to foreign military spending and focus on domestic costs — as almost Trumpian. Carlson agreed that the pitch was “literally Trumpian.”
That exchange was reported by Mediaite on September 2. Carlson also criticized Rogers’ past leadership of the House Intelligence Committee and his support for Israel, while Enjeti pointed to Rogers’ loss in Michigan’s 2024 Senate election despite President Trump carrying the state.
El-Sayed is a progressive Democrat who supports Medicare for All and opposes continued U.S. military aid to Israel. Rogers is a former FBI agent and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who has President Trump’s endorsement.
Those differences make Carlson’s position unusual, but not inexplicable. His hostility toward the intelligence establishment, the Iraq War and foreign intervention has increasingly put him at odds with interventionist Republicans.
The 9/11 dispute also requires careful separation of two different controversies.
Left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who campaigned with El-Sayed during the Democratic primary, said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker later apologized for the wording.
El-Sayed did not make that statement. He has called Piker’s comment dumb, said America did not deserve the attacks and distanced his campaign from the streamer by saying nobody outside his official team speaks for it.
On the 25th anniversary of the attacks, El-Sayed posted that nothing could justify the murder of innocent civilians and honored the victims, their families and first responders.
Today on 9/11, we remember and honor the lives that were taken from us in a terrible act of terrorism. Nothing can justify the murder of innocent civilians. Nothing.
We mourn the victims, their families, and the pain and destruction those terrorists caused. We honor the brave… pic.twitter.com/cgn3v7vFcx
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) September 11, 2026
CBS News reviewed several of El-Sayed’s older social-media posts about 9/11 and the wars that followed. The posts mourned the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks while also comparing that loss with deaths overseas and, in separate posts, the rising COVID-19 death toll.
El-Sayed’s campaign said he has always condemned terrorism and accused Rogers of distorting his position. El-Sayed has framed his argument as opposition to wars that put American service members at risk and harmed civilians without making the country safer.
CBS also verified a deleted September 11, 2021 post in which El-Sayed mourned the Americans killed and injured in New York before contrasting those losses with the death and destruction caused across three countries in the years that followed. His campaign said posts older than July 2023 were removed to prevent them from being presented without context.
Those remarks have nevertheless become a major line of attack for Rogers and national Republicans.
The Associated Press reported that El-Sayed was repeatedly targeted during the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. Speakers focused on his progressive positions, his past association with Piker and his Muslim faith.
Rogers alleged that El-Sayed was being funded by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, but the AP reported that he offered no proof for the claim. El-Sayed answered that Republicans were focusing on his name and religion instead of economic issues affecting Michigan voters.
Rogers has also defended his own 9/11 record after El-Sayed criticized his votes against the 2010 James Zadroga Act, which funded medical treatment and compensation for first responders and survivors.
Rogers said he supported the victims and their families and had advocated for an annual $150 million appropriation. He had argued at the time that the benefits should be funded annually instead of through the structure Congress ultimately adopted.
9/11 was one of the worst days in American history. The insinuation that I do not support the victims or their families is patently false.
In Congress, I proposed and advocated for an annual $150 million appropriation to support the needs of 9/11 survivors and victims’ families.…
— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) September 10, 2026
CBS News reported that Rogers and his allies have made the 9/11 controversy central to the general-election campaign. El-Sayed, in turn, has attacked Rogers’ congressional voting record and accused him of using the anniversary for political gain.
The same report noted that Rogers voted for immediate financial support after the attacks but opposed the 2010 Zadroga Act. Rogers said his alternative funding proposal showed his support for those affected.
At a Friday town hall, El-Sayed called attention to those votes while Rogers pointed to his proposal for annual funding. The exchange has turned both men’s records after 9/11 into competing campaign arguments: El-Sayed is defending his anti-war position, and Rogers is defending his treatment of survivors and first responders.
Axios described the Michigan contest as the most prominent example of a broader Republican strategy tying Democratic candidates to Piker and other controversial voices on the left.
That strategy may energize voters who see El-Sayed’s associations and past rhetoric as disqualifying. His campaign and supporters argue that the attacks conflate his anti-war views with support for terrorism and lean on his Muslim identity.
Carlson’s intervention does not erase those divisions. It exposes a different one.
The Michigan race now includes a Democratic nominee embraced by progressive activists, a Republican nominee backed by President Trump, and one of the right’s most influential media figures openly attacking the Republican while defending the Democrat’s foreign-policy critique.
Carlson never told his audience to vote for El-Sayed. His defense of the Democrat and rejection of Rogers still give both campaigns a new, highly visible argument in a Senate contest already drawing national attention.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
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