El-Sayed grilled on Piker, Israel and socialist ties after Mike Rogers skips Senate debate

By Fox News · Fox News

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed faced roughly an hour of pointed questions Tuesday over his ties to controversial streamer Hasan Piker, his views on Israel, campaign money and his socialist ties after his Republican rival Mike Rogers declined to participate in a scheduled debate in Detroit Tuesday night. El-Sayed offered one of his most explicit condemnations yet of Piker's controversial rhetoric, declined to give a yes-or-no answer when pressed on U.S. recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and pushed back on questions about his relationship with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) during the wide-ranging conversation with the moderator. Rogers did not attend Tuesday's event after declining the station's invitation earlier in the day, leaving El-Sayed to field questions from moderator Roop Raj, viewers and members of the studio audience. FOX 2 said both campaigns were invited on Aug. 5, the day after Michigan's primary, and that El-Sayed quickly accepted, while Rogers did not formally decline until the morning of the Tuesday debate due to objections over Raj serving as the moderator, arguing he was biased. EL-SAYED’S LIBERAL AGENDA CLASHES WITH MUSLIM VOTERS WHO BACK HIM ANYWAY: ‘MALE VERSION’ OF ILHAN OMAR On Tuesday evening, Raj pressed El-Sayed on whether he could "completely, 100%" disavow offensive comments Piker had made. The question came just two days after El-Sayed resisted questioning about Piker during an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "Absolutely," El-Sayed responded to Raj about disavowing Piker's controversial comments, before specifically addressing the streamer's recent remarks about Jewish Americans. "When Hasan made these comments about Jewish Americans and Jewish Michiganders, I disavowed them entirely," El-Sayed said. EL-SAYED DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM HASAN PIKER AFTER DISTURBING REMARKS ABOUT JEWISH AMERICANS El-Sayed went further Tuesday when Raj continued pressing him, saying there were "many, many things"…