El-Sayed Faces Scrutiny Over Essay Criticizing Biden's Zawahiri Strike Strategy

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing fresh scrutiny after a newly unearthed essay revealed his sharp criticism of former President Joe Biden following the 2022 drone strike that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri. The operation, announced on Aug. 1, 2022, targeted one of the primary architects behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. While the White House hailed the strike as a significant counterterrorism victory, El-Sayed argued that Biden was leveraging the event to prop up his fading political standing rather than honoring the gravity of the moment.

The Washington Free Beacon broke the story on the resurfaced text, which El-Sayed originally published in The New Republic. In that piece, he did not shy away from labeling al-Zawahiri a monster. He described him as a "craven terrorist" who "died with the blood of innocent civilians on his hands." Intelligence officials had long maintained that al-Zawahiri played a central role in planning the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil, alongside other deadly assaults on U.S. interests overseas.

But El-Sayed’s focus quickly shifted to what he saw as political opportunism. "President Biden is using the strike to bolster his approval here at home," he wrote. "It is troubling to watch yet another American president flog ‘War on Terror’ themes to resurrect a laggard term." He further suggested that the strike served as a convenient "fig leaf" for the administration, proving to the public that even under Taliban control, Afghanistan remained accessible for direct action against terrorist targets.

El-Sayed’s stance is not an isolated incident. He has consistently pushed back against high-profile U.S. military interventions. When Donald Trump ordered the 2020 strike on Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, El-Sayed warned that "one shouldn't kick a rabid dog." His skepticism extends further back to the Obama administration’s 2011 killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a move El-Sayed characterized as an "extrajudicial assassination."

Perhaps most controversially, El-Sayed has drawn direct parallels between Donald Trump and Osama bin Laden. He suggested that both figures inspired others to engage in terrorism and argued that Trump should be held to account in the same manner bin Laden was, referencing the May 2011 raid by American operators that ended the al-Qaeda leader’s life.

The timing of this revelation is sensitive for El-Sayed’s campaign. His team did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on Wednesday. As the midterm election cycle intensifies, these past comments offer a stark look at how the candidate views executive power and military action. For voters in Michigan, these essays raise urgent questions about his approach to national security and foreign policy. The debate over whether such strikes serve justice or politics is far from settled, and El-Sayed’s record suggests he firmly occupies the latter camp when it comes to presidential maneuvering.