Abdul El-Sayed’s Israel–Iran Remarks Goes Viral in All the Worst Ways

According to the unreliable narrators who populate the online environment, Abdul El-Sayed easily dispatched Mike Rogers in last week’s debate. If you needed another reason to ignore the conventional wisdom that is forged in the internet’s crucibles, that’s only the latest.

While El-Sayed clearly bested Rogers on style, it seemed obvious to me that the Republican Senate candidate did precisely what he had to do. With a level of gratuitous repetition that amounted to neurolinguistic programming, Rogers hammered El-Sayed on his family connections to and sympathies for a variety of Islamist terrorist enterprises. Those allegations proved sticky.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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According to the unreliable narrators who populate the online environment, Abdul El-Sayed easily dispatched Mike Rogers in last week’s debate. If you needed another reason to ignore the conventional wisdom that is forged in the internet’s crucibles, that’s only the latest.

While El-Sayed clearly bested Rogers on style, it seemed obvious to me that the Republican Senate candidate did precisely what he had to do. With a level of gratuitous repetition that amounted to neurolinguistic programming, Rogers hammered El-Sayed on his family connections to and sympathies for a variety of Islamist terrorist enterprises. Those allegations proved sticky.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.