El-Sayed's 9/11 comments spark backlash, Tucker Carlson jumps to his defense: 'Obviously right'

WASHINGTON, DC: After Democratic nominee for the Michigan Senate seat Abdul El-Sayed ignited huge backlash with his 9/11 remark, President Trump's friend turned foe Tucker Carlson came to his defense.

El-Sayed previously said that while 9/11 scared Americans, the response to the attack scared millions.

Tucker Carlson blames Iraq war for 'dozens of 9/11s'

In Carlson’s newsletter on Friday, September 11, the former Trump ally stopped short of endorsing El-Sayed but urged readers to keep his Republican opponent, former Rep Mike Rogers (R-MI), who has the backing of President Donald Trump, “far away from Washington.”

Carlson argued that the US response to 9/11, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, equated to “dozens and dozens of 9/11s,” while also slamming viewers of Fox News.

Carlson argued that America’s response to 9/11 had an even greater impact than the attacks themselves.

He pointed to former President George W Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, despite Iraq having no role in the 9/11 attacks, saying the war killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, caused tens of thousands of US military casualties and contributed to the rise of the Islamic State.

“That means the US slaughtered enough civilians to account for dozens and dozens of 9/11s. And that is a conservative estimate,” he said.

What the 2021 El-Sayed audio revealed

The backlash erupted after a 2021 audio recording of Abdul El-Sayed surfaced, wherein he is heard condemning America’s crackdown on several countries after 9/11, which resulted in destruction and mass killings.

“9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people,” El-Sayed said. “When we talk about 9/11, we often fail to center them.”

Rogers, in strongly worded remarks, called them “disqualifying” for his opponent.

“It is disqualifying for a US Senate candidate to believe that Americans should ‘center’ their grief from 9/11,” the Republican candidate told The New York Times. “Abdul El-Sayed’s attitude towards the worst tragedy in American history is disgusting and makes him completely unfit to serve in public office.”

Tucker Carlson defends Abdul El-Sayed as 'right'

Carlson argued El-Sayed is “obviously right” and there’s “nothing remotely crazy about those remarks.”

“El-Sayed did not celebrate airplane hijackings or cheerlead Al-Q***a; he simply said that the US conducting t*******m of its own in response to 9/11 was not exactly an appropriate reaction. He is obviously right,” Carlson said.

Carlson also said on his podcast earlier this month that he wouldn’t vote for Rogers, even if he was at gunpoint.

“I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint,” he declared.

He added, “We hope the good people of Michigan keep this man [Rogers] far away from Washington.”