Abdul El-Sayed Defends Comments on Fourth of July Fireworks Amid Senate Campaign

Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended his past comments on Fourth of July fireworks during a radio appearance Monday. Speaking on ‘The Breakfast Club,’ El-Sayed addressed questions about his earlier support for defunding the police and his criticism regarding fireworks on Independence Day.

El-Sayed responded to the criticism by stating, ‘They’re coming at me on fireworks. I’m like, ‘All right, first, if your whole conception of America is that it’s fireworks, I’m so sorry. You don’t have a complete conception of America. But even then, right, like what is it?”

In his defense, El-Sayed noted that fireworks can negatively affect air quality, exacerbating health issues such as asthma and heart attacks. He mentioned, ‘I said, ‘Well, every time we do a fireworks show, it destroys the air quality and people have asthma exacerbations and heart attacks the next day.’ That’s all I was saying. You know what I mean? I’m not saying we shouldn’t have fireworks. I’m just saying maybe like there are other ways to show your love.”

This comes after CNN reported that El-Sayed had deleted around 100 YouTube videos before starting his Senate campaign. These videos included content urging Americans to find alternatives to fireworks on the Fourth of July, citing health risks to children and pets.

In a past video, El-Sayed explained his stance through arguments like ‘why fireworks suck’ and a segment titled ‘Fireworks just aren’t worth it: hear us out.’ This content drew additional attention from Republican nominee Mike Rogers on various platforms, including ‘Hannity.’ Rogers criticized El-Sayed for deleting posts and suggested that Michiganders should be aware of his strong views against popular activities.

Rogers commented, ‘This guy spent hours hating on what most Michiganders would enjoy in their pastimes, and he should be held to account for that. These are views that he held, that he was pretty strong about, but he knew that he had to delete them all… If people really knew who he was, they wouldn’t vote for him.”

Fox News Digital tried to obtain comments from both the El-Sayed and Rogers campaigns but did not get an immediate response.