MI A.G. Nessel: El-Sayed Saying 'Perhaps I Deserve to Be Threatened'

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) said that Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s response to her concerns about the state’s Democratic Convention is essentially saying “perhaps I deserve to be threatened simply because of my political beliefs” and she hopes he brings the party together.

Nessel said, “Well, I think it’s unfortunate. I started the first hate crimes and domestic terrorism unit, ever, at a state A.G.’s office. And we prosecute people who threaten the lives of elected officials, and we don’t ask them what their beliefs are or what their political makeup is. Threatening people is wrong, harassing people is wrong, and terrorizing people is wrong. And, when we can, we investigate and we prosecute those cases.”

She continued, “To say that, basically, like, perhaps I deserve to be threatened simply because of my political beliefs, I think is a real missed opportunity for Abdul to bring the party together. And I hope that’s what we’re going to be able to do.”

Nessel further stated, “But a lot of it involves reaching out to those who supported his opponent — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — in the primary and saying, hey, here is why you ought to support me. And, honestly, we have to flip the Senate. There’s no question we need a Democratic Senate. Mike Rogers — who’s his opponent — first of all, horrifically Islamophobic, this campaign already. So, we should all be fighting back against that, for certain. But we know that Mike Rogers is simply going to be a rubber stamp for the most corrupt administration in American history. We know that there are Supreme Court seats that might be up. We know that while Abdul stands for Medicare for All, I don’t even know that Mike Rogers supports Medicare for anyone. So, there are really important components that create an environment that we have to, have to, have to make sure that we have unity in our party. But the way to do that is to make everyone feel safe and everyone feel welcome.”

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