{"id":70405,"date":"2026-03-30T12:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/internet-erupts-over-disqualifying-leaked-audio-from-democrat-in-key-senate-race-discussing-khameneis-death\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:57:14","slug":"internet-erupts-over-disqualifying-leaked-audio-from-democrat-in-key-senate-race-discussing-khameneis-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/internet-erupts-over-disqualifying-leaked-audio-from-democrat-in-key-senate-race-discussing-khameneis-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet erupts over ‘disqualifying’ leaked audio from Democrat in key Senate race discussing Khamenei’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Michigan<\/a> Democrat running for U.S. Senate is facing backlash after a report on leaked audio showing him explaining why he shouldn\u2019t take a public position on the death of former Iran Supreme Leader\u00a0Khamenei because of people in Dearborn, Michigan, who are “sad.”<\/p>\n

Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, according to a\u00a0report<\/u><\/a> from the Washington Free Beacon, was recorded in a staff meeting strategizing about how to address the Iranian leader\u2019s death after he was killed during U.S. and Israel\u2019s military action in the country.<\/p>\n

“I’m just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly,” El-Sayed is heard saying about his response if pressed by a reporter. “I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.'”<\/p>\n

El-Sayed also told his team, in reference to the significant Muslim population in Dearborn, “I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don’t want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don’t think it’s worth even touching that.”<\/p>\n

SANDERS-ENDORSED SENATE CANDIDATE KNOCKED FOR ALLEGED FLIP-FLOP TO ‘HAVE IT BOTH WAYS’ ON KEY ISSUE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The report sparked immediate backlash from Republicans and conservatives on social media.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Speaks volumes about the level of extremism within the El-Sayed coalition here,” Fox News radio political analyst Josh Kraushaar\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“Democrats have an abundance of riches to choose from when selecting which one of their Senate candidates is the craziest, most radical, and most anti-American,” GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“Beyond parody,” conservative communicator Steve Guest\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“Well this is insane,” GOP adviser Nathan Brand\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

TLAIB-BACKED SENATE CANDIDATE IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER DELETING ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Anyone who is sad that the Ayatollah is dead should be deported,” Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Jason Bedrick\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

“Disgraceful,” the Republican Jewish Coalition\u00a0posted on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

In a\u00a0post on X<\/u>,<\/a> former Biden-Harris surrogate Kevin Walling called the news “disqualifying.”<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed\u2019s campaign for comment.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon,\u00a0campaign lawyers at the Sandler Reiff law firm said the recording was “obtained without the campaign’s permission” and “without knowledge that individuals were being recorded.”<\/p>\n

“The campaign is considering its legal options against the individual in question,” the statement added.<\/p>\n

El-Sayed, who is Muslim, recently faced controversy for agreeing to team up<\/a> with Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who once said “America deserved 9\/11.”<\/p>\n

Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary will be held on Aug 4 as El-Sayed squares off against Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens to replace outgoing Sen. Gary Peters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cook Political report ranks the race as a “toss up” heading into November’s consequential midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Michigan Democrat running for U.S. Senate is facing backlash after a report on leaked audio showing him explaining why he shouldn\u2019t take a public position on the death of former Iran Supreme Leader\u00a0Khamenei because of people in Dearborn, Michigan, who are “sad.” Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, according to a\u00a0report from the Washington Free Beacon, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}