Pressed during an event on Wednesday to condemn the Iranian regime’s massacre of tens of thousands of protesters earlier this year, Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped the question, focusing his answer on criticizing the U.S. war in Iran.

A Persian American student — who said that his cousin had been “hunted in the streets” by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for wearing her hijab improperly and that his uncle was “sentenced to die [and] received 50 lashings” — pressed El-Sayed to “renounce” those who supported assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The student, speaking at a town hall held at the University of Michigan, additionally called on El-Sayed to “stand unequivocally against the IRGC, against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and make some statement in support of the protesters.

El-Sayed responded by criticizing the U.S. for taking the role of the “world’s policeman.”

Asked by a Persian American student at a town hall held at the University of Michigan to "stand unequivocally against the IRGC," Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped the question and criticized the U.S. for trying to be the "world’s policeman."

Read more: https://t.co/N2r8xS6tyt pic.twitter.com/pPTL86EtDc

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) September 24, 2026

“Here’s my point: one can disagree with the governance of a foreign country. One can stand in solidarity with freedom and democracy movements, but my worry is when one decides that we are going to go in and take out the leadership of a foreign government,” El-Sayed said. “Because here’s what happens: a lot of times that frustration gets used to justify corporate interests that have a real stake in the natural resources in a particular country.”

El-Sayed went on to say that he “will always stand for and with democratic movements, always” but added, “I also don’t believe that we were in the right to go to war to topple the government of Iran,” and said that it is the “responsibility of the people of Iran to decide what their leadership should look like.”

Pressed again by the student to express solidarity with the protesters who were murdered, El-Sayed repeated that he will “always stand with movements for freedom and democracy.”

The Michigan Senate candidate previously faced criticism over leaked comments in which he said he did not want to speak out publicly on Khamenei’s killing by the U.S. and Israel at the start of the Iran war because he did not want to alienate voters in Dearborn, Mich., who were upset about the ayatollah’s death.

“Abdul El-Sayed is looking a young man in the eyes and can’t even condemn a terrorist dictator murdering thousands of his own people. Pathetic,” former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, said on X in response to the exchange.