“The View” co-host Sara Haines challenged Michigan senator-elect Abdul-El Sayed over his response to an attack on a Jewish synagogue and the time it took him to apologize for his remarks.
On March 12, a man drove a truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and exchanged gunfire with security staff before taking his own life, authorities said.
El-Sayed condemned the attack, but faced criticism after saying, “Hurt people hurt people.” He was referring to the attacker’s relatives, who had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
Haines told El-Sayed that the remark had stayed with many people. She noted that he later apologized, but said it took about five months for him to address why his words had upset voters and constituents. She also asked whether leaders should challenge extremist views within their own faith, particularly given that El-Sayed is the first Muslim senator.
El-Sayed said he agreed that faith should bring people together rather than be used to excuse harmful acts. He recalled visiting the temple after the attack and attending a bar mitzvah there when he was younger.
He said he had condemned the attack immediately, but had tried to add context about the attacker’s family. In hindsight, he said, he should have focused first on the pain of those affected. He added that he had learned from the experience and was willing to apologize when he made a mistake.
El-Sayed said he wanted leaders to show compassion without exceptions, while also being able to discuss how events around the world can have consequences elsewhere.
Haines said she understood his point, but added that she would have been furious if someone used the values she had built her life around to hurt others, especially children. She said she was surprised it took him time to recognize that. El-Sayed replied that he heard her. Co-host Joy Behar said it was better late than never.
Jesse Arm, a Manhattan Institute vice president and pollster from Michigan, criticized El-Sayed’s remarks. He argued that a politician would face severe backlash for responding to a massacre of Black worshippers by emphasizing the attacker’s grievances, and questioned why the standard should differ when Jewish children were targeted.
Arm said the issue was not the timing of El-Sayed’s explanation, but the suggestion that events overseas could lessen the responsibility for an attempted attack on people in the United States. He added that suffering does not justify attacking a synagogue, and said leaders should be able to condemn such violence without shifting attention to the attacker’s pain.
