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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, declined to apologize Monday night for his “ogre on a pike” metaphor after critics from both parties condemned the leaked remark as violent and, in some cases, sexist.
Pressed during the final primary debate before next week’s election, over whether he regretted the rhetoric, El-Sayed defended the substance of his comments before revealing whom he had been referring to — and it was not primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.
“I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman,” El-Sayed said, accusing the Pennsylvania Democratic senator of getting elected on one set of values before “completely throwing those values in the mud.”
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The controversy stemmed from comments El-Sayed made during a recent Zoom meeting with donors, Politico reported, adding that El-Sayed was discussing how to use his victory in Michigan’s upcoming Aug. 4 primary and the November election to build a national platform to move the Democratic Party further left and support future primary challenges, such as against Fetterman.
“Ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message,” El-Sayed said, according to audio obtained by Politico. While El-Sayed did not name Stevens in the recording, some Democrats interpreted the remark as referring to her. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., who has endorsed Stevens, called the remark a “violent, vulgar” threat and said candidates should be working to lower the political temperature.
Neera Tanden, a former Biden administration official who returned to leading the left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress, connected the remark to broader accusations of sexism that have roiled the primary. “Calling your female opponent an ogre you want to put on a pike is not beating the rap that this race has some serious sexism,” Tanden wrote on X.
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El-Sayed did not apologize for or retract the metaphor. He instead argued that senators should be willing to challenge colleagues who fail to act according to the values on which they campaigned. The progressive candidate then pivoted to accuse the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, of running repeated attacks against his character on Stevens’ behalf. He invoked his wife, mother and two daughters while rejecting accusations that his rhetoric toward women had been disrespectful.
“I was raised by strong women,” El-Sayed said, arguing that claims he was sexist because he had criticized former first lady Michelle Obama in a years-old opinion piece and challenged Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the 2018 gubernatorial primary were “inconsistent with the truth.”
Stevens responded by highlighting other comments attributed to El-Sayed during the leaked donor call, including attacks involving Whitmer, former Sen. Debbie Stabenow and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who was in the race with El-Sayed and Stevens before dropping out earlier this month.
“Only he can account for saying that Whitmer is bought and paid for, or that no one cares about Debbie Stabenow, or that Mallory McMorrow isn’t smart enough,” Stevens said.
She later delivered a pointed response to El-Sayed’s clarification.
“Thank you for clarifying that you didn’t call me an ogre,” Stevens said.
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Meanwhile, Stevens campaign spokesperson, Arik Wolk, accused El-Sayed of resorting to personal insults and focusing on his national political ambitions rather than Michigan.
“Abdul continues with personal insults and making this race about his personal political ambitions and the other 49 states,” Wolk said. “Haley is focused on getting things done for Michigan, and only Michigan.”
Republicans also took advantage of the remarks. RNC Research characterized El-Sayed’s debate response as a “double down” on calling Fetterman an “ogre,” while Michigan Republican strategist Dennis Lennox argued that El-Sayed’s candidacy was “about propelling the hard Left’s ascent nationally.”
The “pike” imagery has triggered political controversy before. In 2020, former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon said he would place the heads of Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray “on pikes” outside the White House as a warning to federal officials.
X, then-Twitter, suspended Bannon’s podcast account following backlash over the remarks, while Facebook and YouTube removed the video they were included in, citing policies addressing violent or incendiary content. Bannon later maintained that he had been speaking metaphorically — similar to El-Sayed.
Earlier that year, a separate “head on a pike” controversy erupted during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial after CBS News reported that an unnamed Trump confidant said Republican senators had been warned, “Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.”
Then-House impeachment manager, now Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., repeated the report on the Senate floor while stressing, “I don’t know if that is true” and “I hope it is not true.” Republican senators immediately disputed the account, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, saying she knew of no senator who had been threatened by the administration and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said of Schiff’s remark about the alleged comments: “That’s when he lost me.”
“Not only have I never heard the ‘head on the pike’ line but also I know of no Republican senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the administration,” Collins told reporters at the time.
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