Clyburn says he backs El-Sayed: ‘All of us deserve second chances’

Sen. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Sunday said he supports Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) after he apologized for comments he made following an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this year, with the South Carolina senator adding that “all of us deserve second chances.”

El-Sayed told the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at the state party’s convention in Lansing on Saturday that he “made a mistake” after he said “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.”

“I have spoken with the good doctor. He’s our nominee. I support his election. I take him at his word. He has apologized. He says he will not campaign with Piker anymore. I’d say that it’s worth checking him at his word,” Clyburn told NBC News’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker referring to left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.

“All of us deserve second chances,” Clyburn added.

El-Sayed made his remarks after the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township in Michigan, where authorities say a man intentionally drove a truck into the synagogue and injured a security guard to deliberately target Jewish people.

The man, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali , a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon, lost family members in an Israeli attack in Lebanon earlier that month. Israel claimed that his brother was a Hezbollah commander .

El-Sayed said Saturday that he attempted to provide a broader context but acknowledged that doing so in the immediate aftermath of the attack was a mistake.

“If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was not what I intended.”

El-Sayed has also distanced himself from Piker , who threw his support behind the doctor on the campaign trail leading up to the Democratic primary. This outraged Democrats, citing the Twitch streamer’s past remarks saying that if American Jews promote the idea that they are “singularly invested in” Israel, then someone could one day “take action” against American Jews.

Piker has also said the political faction and militant group leading Gaza, Hamas, is a thousand times better than “the fascist settler colonial apartheid state” of Israel. He has argued that many of his controversial remarks are intentionally provocative and meant to challenge how people think.

El-Sayed recently told Semafor that Michigan voters are more focused on the cost of living and healthcare, calling the “effort to make this race about a streamer” living in Los Angeles “actually kind of laughable.”

The candidate, who narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in the primary, will face off against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in November.