Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended his infamous statement that "hurt people hurt people," in which he justified the terrorist attack at a Michigan synagogue, telling NBC News that he was trying to help people "understand" the "cycle of violence." A Jewish Democrat whose son was attending preschool at the synagogue during the attack told the Washington Free Beacon that the remarks have only increased her concerns about El-Sayed.
El-Sayed has faced intense criticism over his response to the Hezbollah-inspired attack in March. He argued at the time that the attacker, a Lebanese immigrant whose brother was a Hezbollah commander, was retaliating because his family members were killed in an Israeli strike. "As an epidemiologist, I've spent my career studying the worst things that happen to people to understand how to stop them from happening, and I'll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation in medical school: hurt people hurt people," El-Sayed said. "Violence is a cycle."
NBC News's Tom Llamas pressed El-Sayed on the remark in a Wednesday interview. El-Sayed apologized, but only after he defended "those four words."
"I wish it was true that hurt people always help people; I'd love to live in that world," El-Sayed said. "I want us to understand pain for what it is and end the cycle of violence that we see anywhere against anyone."
El-Sayed's answer prompted a rebuke from Taylor Weintraub, whose five-year-old son attends Temple Israel. A lifelong Democrat, Weintraub has publicly supported El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, saying it marks the first time she's voting for a GOP candidate.
"I just can't believe that there's any justification for somebody wanting to kill my five-year-old Jewish-American son over something that happened overseas," Weintraub told the Free Beacon. "I believe that when he's talking around it, it's actually making it worse," she added in reference to El-Sayed.
"I just need somebody who's going to stand up for us, say it for what it is, and stop spreading false things about Israel," Weintraub went on, "because it does spread right back into the Jewish population."
El-Sayed's NBC News interview contained other heated moments. At one point, El-Sayed defended his recent claim that Israel and Iran pose equal threats to the United States. "You think they're equally a threat to the U.S.?" Llamas asked. "I agree that Iran can, is, is a dangerous threat, that's not a question, but I also think that when you ostensibly have an ally that's pushing you into war with the country that is threatening you, that does not make you any safer," El-Sayed said. "You think they're both a threat?" Llamas responded. "Yes!" said El-Sayed.
Llamas also pressed El-Sayed on his professed ignorance of his family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, pointing to Free Beacon reporting on social media posts from his sister celebrating their mother's college activism in the Islamic group. El-Sayed accused Llamas of "using hearsay evidence."
"I'm telling you, like, we—I have no ties. We have no ties," El-Sayed said, dismissing statements from his sister. "I have never had these conversations with my mother. … Like, you're using hearsay evidence from a tweet. This is not serious."
