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Musician Kid Rock used his seat on the panel of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, October 30, to deliver an extended attack on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, telling host Bill Maher and the studio audience that El-Sayed's record "scares the hell out of me" and questioning whether the candidate is "a wolf in sheep's clothing, or ... just a wolf in wolf's clothing."
The exchange began when Maher raised former President Barack Obama's campaigning for El-Sayed, who is Muslim. Maher said: "As far as this issue goes about Islam in America and candidates who are Muslim, the left is naïve and the right is hysterical." He then quoted President Donald Trump as saying of El-Sayed: "If Abdul and the Democrats win, they may open the floodgates and welcome hordes of jihadists to our shores, making a nightmare of violence and terror till you can not also have a Christmas."
Kid Rock then laid out his case against El-Sayed. He said El-Sayed wrote an op-ed in college supporting the Egyptian president, who he said was "absolutely with the Muslim Brotherhood," and even called on him to purge the police and the media. He said that in the last Michigan debate, when the candidates were asked point blank who is a bigger threat to America, Iran or Israel, Republican Mike Rogers answered Iran, while El-Sayed, asked twice, could not answer the question. "If that's not enough for you, throw a big helping of socialism on top," Kid Rock added.
Kid Rock went on to say that El-Sayed "very much has assimilated - good education, well-spoken, even a good-looking guy," before asking: "You know who else assimilated very well? ... The Fort Hood shooter... So it scares the hell out of me, this Islamic extremism." Maher pushed back, noting that the 9/11 hijackers were not assimilated in the United States and were from Saudi Arabia; Kid Rock disputed that, and the two argued over the hijackers' nationalities. In fact, 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
The race is one of the tightest in the country ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with El-Sayed facing Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan's open Senate seat. El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the United States Senate if he wins. Kid Rock, a Michigan native, has pressed the national-security argument against El-Sayed for weeks: he made similar comparisons to the September 11 hijackers and the Fort Hood shooter in a Fox News appearance on October 16, and President Trump reposted a clip on October 12 in which Kid Rock warned of a future "civil war over religious ideology."
El-Sayed has denied any personal or family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and a Bridge Michigan fact check found no evidence that he held membership in or pledged support to the group. The October 30 "Real Time" episode also featured a one-on-one interview with Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei on the panel; Maher opened the show by responding to Trump's 1,300-word Truth Social tirade against him following their October 15 White House dinner, which Kid Rock and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith also attended.