Father of 9/11 hero cuts ad ripping El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
Douglas Beamer has already given this country more than any politician ever will. His son Todd was on Flight 93, part of that group of passengers who rushed the cockpit and drove the plane into a Pennsylvania field instead of the U. S.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
The father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, who helped overtake terrorist hijackers, narrated a dramatic new campaign ad slamming Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over his association with Hasan Piker, who said America "deserved" the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Douglas Beamer has already given this country more than any politician ever will. His son Todd was on Flight 93, part of that group of passengers who rushed the cockpit and drove the plane into a Pennsylvania field instead of the U.S. Capitol. Those men and women saved lives with nothing but instinct and courage. Now Doug Beamer is using his voice to ask a simple question about Abdul El-Sayed: why does this man want to be a United States senator when he keeps company with someone who said America had 9/11 coming?
Let's be honest about what this ad is. It's a gut punch wrapped in a hard truth. Hasan Piker is not some fringe blogger getting ratioed on the timeline. He's a massive Twitch streamer with a huge young audience, a guy El-Sayed has actively courted for clout. When Piker said Americans "deserved" the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, he wasn't being ironic. He was saying what he thinks. And El-Sayed didn't run from him. He ran to him, and even touted an endorsement from him before trying to quietly scrub the association when the heat came on.
His son's last act was the one that mattered most. Doug Beamer spent 23 years carrying that grief, and he's earned the right to speak about it. When he looks at El-Sayed and sees someone cozying up to a man who mocks his son's memory, he gets to say something. That's not political weaponization. That's a father holding a politician accountable for terrible judgment.
The El-Sayed campaign will dismiss this as an attack from the right, as if the source of the message erases its content. But there's no spin that fixes this. You are either the candidate who thinks associating with a 9/11 truther is fine, or you are not. El-Sayed decided he was. A campaign that shrugs off this association doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Michigan voters deserve better than a senator who picks his friends based on audience numbers. Doug Beamer is asking them to remember that. We'd suggest they listen.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.