Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing a wave of online blowback after dodging questions about his ties to far-left streamer Hasan Piker, a frequent presence on the campaign trail in Michigan.

When asked about Piker’s influence on his campaign, El-Sayed told reporters the race is about Michigan and that he is “not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California.”

“But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California,” El-Sayed said. “This is not a serious conversation.”

Fox News Digital then pressed El-Sayed on why he brought Piker to Michigan if that was the case, which he waved off before doubling down and calling Piker “a single streamer from California” when another reporter asked if he would condemn him.

ABDUL EL-SAYED PLAYS DOWN HASAN PIKER TIES AFTER STREAMER’S VIRAL ANTISEMITISM FIRESTORM

The clip exploded across social media and drew widespread ridicule as El-Sayed scrambles to distance himself from the streamer, who has roughly 10 million social media followers.

In a post on X, writer and political commentator Stephen L. Miller wrote, “Amazing. They are so terrified of him that she literally jumps in one question deep.”

“Who is the candidate here?” Miller wrote in another post.

“This keeps getting worse,” Republican political strategist Kyle Martinsen posted on X.

“I’m interested in it so there’s a problem here,” Townhall senior columnist Kurt Schlichter posted on X.

In another post on X, “The Charlie Kirk Show” executive producer Andrew Kolvet wrote, “It’s very clear Abul El Sayed is panicking. He went from doing a half dozen campaign stops with Hasan Piker and taking glamor shots with him, to refusing to say his name. Now he’s just ‘some media person in California.’ What a pal.”

HASAN PIKER INSISTS ABDUL EL-SAYED ASKED HIM TO ‘STUMP’ FOR MICHIGAN CAMPAIGN AMID BACKLASH

“He might be worse than Kamala…,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha posted on X.

Pro-Israel activist and philanthropist Adam Milstein also wrote in a post on X, “El Sayed again refuses to condemn Hasan Piker — who himself recently confirmed it was El Sayed that asked him to campaign for him, not the reverse.”

Piker has emerged as a growing flashpoint within the Democratic Party over his past controversial remarks, including his claim that “America deserved 9/11.”

Last week, El-Sayed responded to outrage over his association with Piker after the streamer’s comments on a viral audio clip involving Jewish Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in the state’s 11th Congressional District, sparked outrage.

“I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople,” El-Sayed said in a statement.

EL-SAYED PALS AROUND WITH FAR-LEFT STREAMER HASAN PIKER THE DAY BEFORE CRUCIAL MICHIGAN SENATE ELECTION
 

Despite El-Sayed’s attempts to distance himself from Piker, the streamer has spoken openly about his invitation to join the campaign, saying at an April rally with El-Sayed, “The reason why, when Abdul asked for me to come on this journey with him, I said yes, absolutely.”

In a Friday interview with Semafor columnist David Weigel, Piker said El-Sayed also asked him to “stump” for his campaign.

El-Sayed will face Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers for retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ seat in a race that could determine control of the Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.

President Donald Trump took aim Monday at the growing backlash against data centers, warning that communities that shut the door on the facilities risk missing out on the jobs and economic gains of America’s AI boom.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” he added.

Trump has made energy dominance and U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence central pillars of his second term, placing data centers at the center of his push to maintain America’s edge over China.

“China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement,” Trump wrote, arguing that resistance to new facilities risks undercutting America’s edge in the global AI race.

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The data center boom has also emerged as a midterm flashpoint, as concerns over rising electricity costs, water use and rapid development collide with promises of jobs, investment and U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence.

That tension is already playing out across the country.

Trump has specifically criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s approach, calling the Lone Star State’s stance toward data centers a “mistake” and pointing to the economic investment the projects can bring to communities willing to host them.

Texas has cemented its status as a heavyweight in the industry, with Dallas ranking as the world’s No. 1 primary data center market in Cushman & Wakefield’s 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison. But billions of dollars in new investment have also brought enormous electricity demands and questions over who should pay for the infrastructure needed to support the boom.

Abbott has moved to address those concerns, directing regulators to ensure data centers cover the infrastructure costs needed to serve them and calling on developers to add their own power generation rather than shift costs onto Texas residents.

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Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro recently imposed new requirements on large data center developments.

Other governors have taken a more restrictive stance. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on new hyper-scale data centers as states grapple with concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and the pace of development.

Data centers house the servers and computing equipment that power artificial intelligence and cloud services, requiring vast amounts of electricity to operate and cool. Most Americans may never see the inside of one, but they rely on data centers constantly, often without realizing it.

The growing patchwork of state restrictions and requirements could complicate Trump’s push for rapid data center expansion as communities weigh America’s AI ambitions against concerns over electricity costs, water use and development.

The Clinton Foundation is hiring for positions in the personal offices of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — a paid “special projects associate” for his office and an unpaid intern for hers — and conservatives are having a field day with the titles.

“Love how it’s the same job but for Bill Clinton they couldn’t call it an ‘internship,’” wrote James Laverty, rapid response director for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The jobs appear to have some overlapping administrative duties but are not the same. Hillary Clinton’s unpaid internship includes research, scheduling, briefing memos and event support, while Bill Clinton’s paid associate role requires a bachelor’s degree and includes executive support, communications and managing special projects.

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“Why, was there some sort of controversy involving Bill Clinton and an intern or something,” joked Michael Knowles.

“If Bill Clinton asks you to do a special project, say no,” said conservative commentator Steve Guest. He added “my gosh” in another X post reacting to the listing. 

Both listings also use the word “discretion.” Bill Clinton’s position calls for “using discretion in scheduling,” while Hillary Clinton’s internship requires a “high level of professionalism and discretion.”

MONICA LEWINSKY HAS ONE REQUEST FOR CRITICS NEARLY 30 YEARS AFTER WHITE HOUSE SCANDAL

“Where is Sgt. Hans Schultz when you need him? Hillary Clinton is seeking an intern ‘with a high level’ of ‘discretion’ to work for free. Applicants might want to Google this one,” wrote Jonathan Turley referencing the show “Hogan’s Heroes.”

Several of the posts referenced the scandal that erupted publicly in 1998 over Clinton’s sexual relationship with Lewinsky, who was a 22-year-old White House intern when the relationship began in 1995.

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Lewinsky later turned over a navy blue dress she said she wore during a 1997 sexual encounter with Clinton to Starr’s Office of Independent Counsel. FBI testing concluded Clinton was the source of DNA obtained from a semen stain on the dress.

“Bold of HilDawg to be in Monica Blue,” wrote Charles Correll III, speech writer for Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., referencing the color of Hillary’s shirt in the photo.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Clinton Foundation and Monica Lewinsky for comment.

Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed spent this past weekend trying to mend fences with Jewish Democrats in Michigan, but his Republican rival calls El-Sayed’s comments a “sham apology.”

El-Sayed, in an appearance Saturday before the Michigan Democrats’ Jewish Caucus, and in an answer to a question from Fox News Digital, apologized for comments he made after a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue. But he pushed back when asked to repudiate controversial comments from incendiary left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who is a strong supporter of his campaign.

A vocal critic of Israel who describes its military actions against Hamas in Gaza as “genocide,” El-Sayed is facing off against former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in the Great Lakes battleground state, for a crucial open Senate seat the Democrats must hold in the midterm elections as they aim to win back control of the chamber.

El-Sayed’s narrow primary victory over more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens in what was a divisive intraparty showdown was arguably the biggest victory to date for the left in its battle against the establishment for the ideological future of the Democratic Party. El-Sayed appeared this past weekend at the state party’s nominating convention in Lansing, Michigan in an effort to unify Democrats in the wake of the primary battle.

DEMOCRATIC MICHIGAN AG ACCUSES HER PARTY OF ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ DOING ENOUGH TO COUNTER ANTISEMITISM

Fox News Digital asked El-Sayed about a recent controversy stemming from comments he made in response to an attack on a Michigan synagogue, when federal investigators say a gunman inspired and radicalized by Hezbollah crashed into the place of worship seeking to kill as many Jewish people as he could. The alleged attacker was a Lebanese-born man who a week earlier had lost relatives in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

“Hurt people, hurt people,” El-Sayed said in response to the attack. He was criticized by members of his own party, including Michigan Secretary of State Dana Nessel, who discussed the comments in a recent interview with The Atlantic, and declined to attend this past weekend’s convention partly over concerns of antisemitism in the Democratic Party.

El-Sayed told Fox News Digital his comments “might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify,” but then offered an apology.

“To anybody who feels like my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright,” El-Sayed added. “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”

El-Sayed is an epidemiologist and former Wayne County Health Department director who, if elected in November, would make history as the nation’s first Muslim senator. He has argued against unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, as have other progressive politicians. And El-Sayed has repeatedly declined to directly answer whether Israel has the right to exist.

He said his message to Jewish voters in Michigan is, “We may not agree on everything when it comes to foreign policy… I’m not going to stop fighting for Palestinian self-determination… but that does not mean that I will not stand up… for safety for all communities and I believe in the safety and dignity of Jewish kids like I believe in the safety and dignity of my own kids.”

Before taking questions from reporters, El-Sayed met in Lansing with the state’s Democratic Jewish Caucus.

“He just had a very good meeting with us,” Daniel Rivkin, a convention delegate and member of the caucus, told Fox News Digital, as he referred to El-Sayed. “We’re having real conversations.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL IN MICHIGAN’S BLOCKBUSTER SENATE RACE

The El-Sayee campaign is also in the process of hiring a Jewish liaison, Fox News Digital confirmed on Monday.

But some Jewish leaders in Michigan went public on Saturday with an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the state to sign their names in support of Rogers, who is making a second straight run for the Senate after falling just 20,000 votes short in 2024.

“Many of us have been fiercely supportive of Democratic candidates and principles. All of us have felt threatened and alienated by the politics and allies embraced by Abdul El-Sayed, which has included demonization of Jews, equivocation on terrorism, exclusion of Jewish Americans from public life, and expression of implacable hatred of the world’s only Jewish nation,” the letter stated.

Rogers, in a statement highlighting the letter, claimed that “Abdul El-Sayed fans the flames of antisemitism. We’re fighting to extinguish it.”

In an interview Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” Rogers said, “We’ve had so many Democrat Jewish people here in the state of Michigan ring up our phone and say, “I can’t do this. I’m for you.”

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Referring to El-Sayed, Rogers said, “When someone says you might have been offended by what I said, that’s not an apology.”

And he claimed that El-Sayed “has a long history of antisemitic and inflammatory comments.”

But El-Sayed has repeatedly pushed back, saying, “My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms, wherever we see it.”

Making El-Sayed’s mission to make peace with Jewish Democrats and independents more difficult is the backing he receives from Piker.

Piker recently featured on his stream an image of state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Moss, who is Jewish, has said that people are sharing a fake audio clip of him claiming that his entire reason for running for Congress is to make sure that America continues to support Israel.

“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” Piker warned.

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Piker, who endorsed El-Sayed for the Democratic nomination and appeared at some of the candidate’s campaign events including a primary night party in Detroit, has repeatedly stood by his numerous past comments critical of Israel over its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

El-Sayed, who over the past week appeared to try and distance himself from Piker, responded to the firestorm by saying, “I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”

On Saturday, El-Sayed was peppered with questions from reporters about Piker.

“We’re in the state of Michigan. If you want to make this race about a streamer in California, I just think you’re missing the boat,” El-Sayed told reporters. “This is about affordability in Michigan. This is about seeing a doctor in Michigan. This is about Donald Trump’s disastrous policies in Michigan. That’s what I’m focused on right now.”

As the questions about Piker continued, El-Sayed repeatedly characterized him as “a streamer from California” who is irrelevant to his race in Michigan. “This is not a serious conversation.”

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“I don’t consider the Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party. About four weeks ago, they had a convention in Chicago. Separate party. They believe in defunding police, letting prisoners out of prison, opening borders, eliminating the Pentagon. If you’re so confident people want that, I’ll see you in November. Put it on the ballot. Let’s go. Run as a separate party,” Emanuel emphasized.

Democratic Party leaders, when asked about the party’s current ideological warfare, often point to Democrats as a “big tent” party.

But veteran Democratic strategist Julian Epstein criticizes such responses and jabs at his party for failing to call out the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

“They’ve taken cover behind the empty ‘Big Tent” lie as radical DSA members and allies, like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Colorado’s Melat Kiros, triumph in Democratic primaries,” Epstein wrote in an opinion piece last week in the New York Post.

Epstein, who served as chief counsel for the Democratic minority on the House Judiciary Committee during the 1998 impeachment proceeds against then-President Bill Clinton and who later served on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, argued, “Moderates should unite and shed the Big Tent delusion — because they have nothing to lose but their chains.”

With the House of Representatives back in session, a resolution “condemning socialism in all its forms” could see a vote later this week.

Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., introduced a measure Thursday condemning socialism in all its forms, telling Fox News Digital he wanted to use the vote to force moderate House Democrats to take a more public stance against the DSA.

Fox News’ James Cirrone contributed to this report

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Questions over whether the Russia-Ukraine war is entering a new phase are mounting as Kyiv endures repeated drone attacks and near-constant air raid alerts, including growing waves during daylight hours — an expansion beyond the nighttime barrages that have become grimly familiar to residents of the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched nearly 1,500 drones over four days, more than half of them jet-powered, accusing Moscow of attempting to wear down Ukraine and its population. The attacks have repeatedly interrupted Kyiv’s metro system and daily commutes, Reuters reported Aug. 31, as residents are forced to seek shelter during daytime air raid alerts.

As Ukrainians seek some semblance of normalcy at the end of the summer and prepare for the start of the school year, the relentless attacks are again sending already exhausted Kyiv residents underground.

RUSSIA UNLEASHES NEARLY 600 MISSILES AND DRONES ON KYIV IN DEADLIEST STRIKE SINCE MAY

Russian President Vladimir Putin has simultaneously intensified attacks on Ukraine’s warehouses and logistics network, damaging distribution centers used by major retailers and disrupting food deliveries.

Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region stretched into a fifth consecutive day Monday, with strikes damaging warehouses, a retail outlet and residential buildings in the Kyiv region.

The attacks are part of a broader campaign against Ukrainian commercial and logistics infrastructure. Reuters reported Aug. 28 that Russia had targeted warehouses belonging to major supermarket chains, Ukraine’s largest private postal company and home-goods retailers.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi said that roughly 90% of the food logistics infrastructure operated by retail chains had been destroyed.

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“As of today, roughly speaking, 90% of food logistics operated by retail chains have been destroyed, but that doesn’t mean Ukrainians will be left without food,” Vysotskyi told reporters in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. He said retailers would shift logistics and use alternative methods of delivering food.

Ukrainian outlet TSN reported Aug. 30 that some NOVUS locations in Kyiv were short of bread, potatoes, apples and oatmeal, while supermarket chain ATB had introduced limits on how much of certain products customers could purchase.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has expanded its own campaign against Russian economic infrastructure. Ukrainian drones have targeted oil facilities as well as warehouses connected to major Russian online retailers, including Wildberries and Ozon. Reuters reported Monday that a logistics hub in Yekaterinburg was also struck by a drone.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, a former USAF assistant vice chief of staff, told Fox News Digital that he believes the military momentum has increasingly shifted toward Ukraine, particularly because of Kyiv’s expanding use of long-range drones.

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“My sense is the momentum has swung in Ukraine’s favor over the last year or so,” Newton told Fox News Digital. “The Ukrainians have shown tremendous resolve and capability to push back against Russia.”

Newton pointed particularly to Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia against “energy production capability, logistics supply chains, and so forth,” calling their use of drone warfare “quite remarkable.”

He cautioned, however, that Ukraine faces a critical vulnerability as Russia intensifies its aerial campaign.

“The current challenge facing Ukraine is the shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors,” Newton said, noting that the systems are also in heavy demand elsewhere around the world.

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The escalation comes amid new reporting about Putin’s calculations over how — or whether — the war can end.

The Economist reported Aug. 30, that Putin fears ending the war without Russia achieving even what he considers a minimum objective — control of all of Donbas — could threaten his position and potentially his physical safety.

“They will hang me,” Putin reportedly told people around him at some point during the war, according to an unnamed insider cited by The Economist. Fox News Digital has not independently verified Putin remarks.

The Economist also reported that dissatisfaction with the war is growing among ordinary Russians and that the mood among parts of Russia’s elite is even more pessimistic, with one source arguing that nearly five years consumed by the war represents a failure regardless of its eventual outcome.

Newton argued that the intensifying confrontation makes NATO cohesion increasingly important.

“In my view it’s more important now for NATO to remain firm perhaps at any time since the end of the Cold War,” he said. “A weakened NATO emboldens Putin and Russia not only against Ukraine but the entire alliance.”