Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is warning that Democrats may have handed Republicans an opening in Michigan after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly captured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, telling Jewish Insider that the progressive candidate’s record and political alliances could ultimately cost Democrats a seat they had expected to hold.

Speaking with Jewish Insider just hours after Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) conceded the closely fought primary race, Fetterman predicted El-Sayed will face a far tougher challenge in the general election than he did among Democratic primary voters.

“He will quickly discover a primary is a much different situation in this state [than the general election], when you’re accountable for winning the other side. I can’t wait to see him campaign for the general. I have got my popcorn for that,” Fetterman told Jewish Insider. “Will he denounce Hasan Piker? Because Piker is already calling moderates ‘Islamophobic pieces of [garbage].’ Will he campaign with him? Will he denounce his views? I am daring him to continue to campaign with Hasan Piker now.”

Fetterman also told Jewish Insider that political commentator Hasan Piker has already become a liability for El-Sayed because of his inflammatory rhetoric.

“Think about how volatile a guy like Piker is,” Fetterman said. “He’s already gone off and exploded because El-Sayed was saying how now we have to mend fences.”

In his interview with Jewish Insider, Fetterman described El-Sayed as “a dream for a Republican candidate,” arguing that, if he were the GOP nominee, he would spend millions of dollars highlighting El-Sayed’s ties to Piker during the campaign.

Fetterman further argued to Jewish Insider that El-Sayed’s razor-thin primary victory hardly reflected overwhelming support from Democratic voters.

“I don’t know why El-Sayed described this as a big movement. He thinks that this was an incredible win and that’s just not the case,” he told Jewish Insider. “Just the opposite — he barely won by 14,000 votes.”

Continuing his criticism, Fetterman said, “He really ran the under-four mile politically, palling around with a dude that loves Hamas and thinks America deserved 9/11,” he added. “I mean, will that stick? We’ll see, but overall, this takes largely what had been a safe seat for Democrats and absolutely puts it in play now. Mike Rogers barely lost to [Sen.] Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) [in 2022].”

Although sharply critical of the Democratic nominee, Fetterman made clear to Jewish Insider that he is not backing Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

“I’m not making any endorsements in this race.”

Fetterman also questioned whether El-Sayed could attract support from Michigan’s Jewish and pro-Israel voters, pointing to El-Sayed’s response to the attack on Temple Israel earlier this year.

“Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,” Fetterman said.

According to Jewish Insider, Fetterman argued that El-Sayed has built much of his political identity around criticism of pro-Israel organizations and Israel itself.

“Every other word out of his mouth is AIPAC, AIPAC, AIPAC. Imagine what that must look like to a Jewish voter,” Fetterman said of El-Sayed. “Essentially he has defined his race by opposing Jewish money or saying Israel is the aggressor, and he aligns himself with some of the worst people.”

Fetterman went even further, telling Jewish Insider that he cannot understand how Jewish voters could support El-Sayed under those circumstances.

“I’m not a member of the Jewish community, but I can’t imagine how anyone could vote for him in good conscience,” he continued. “How could a Jewish voter in Michigan vote for a guy that refused to condemn a terrorist that crashed his car into a synagogue to kill 150 Jewish children? That’s disqualifying, and it’s appalling.”

Fetterman also linked El-Sayed’s positions to those of Piker and criticized what he characterized as sympathy toward Iran and anti-Israel groups.

“This is a guy that has similar views to Piker. We all know why Abdul El-Sayed was sad after we incinerated Iranian leadership. Remember what Hamas has done to defenseless Israeli and Jewish civilians on 10/7. Piker is the guy that cheers for that organization. I don’t know how you are able to reconcile that.”

In his conversation with Jewish Insider, Fetterman also criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for backing El-Sayed in Michigan, as well as former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whose endorsement Sanders later withdrew following allegations of sexual assault.

“Bernie Sanders is not flipping seats,” Fetterman said. “He is trying to put volatile and terrible candidates into otherwise more safe kinds of opportunities for Democrats.”

Fetterman concluded by saying he has no intention of endorsing El-Sayed, adding that the Democratic nominee likely would not welcome his support anyway.

“I can’t ever endorse him, not to think he’d even want mine, and not because he’s called me an asshole or because I’m an ogre that belongs on a pike,” Fetterman said, referring to comments El-Sayed made about him earlier this month. “It’s because he’d have to renounce people like Piker and some of those extreme community leaders that were very much involved with standing with Iran and engaged in rhetoric that describes America as evil. They’re just essentially anti-American people, ironically, while they are living in our country.”

{Matzav.com}