Fox News’ Lawrence B. Jones took a Democratic Senate candidate to task after he claimed Muslims would be upset by the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for Senate in Michigan, was caught on leaked audio telling his campaign staff that he did not wish to make any public statement about the Israeli operation that killed Khamenei, saying, “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” and that he didn’t “want to comment on Khamenei at all.”
If asked about Khamenei’s El-Sayed suggested pivoting to President Donald Trump and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
During an appearance on Fox and Friends, Jones questioned El-Sayed about his comments. “Who are the people within the community that are sad about the ayatollah being dead?” Jones asked. “Because the peaceful Muslims that I know, including those that are in the Gulf state that are supporting this action right now, they reject him and they wanted him dead. So who are those people that you know who are sad and why?”
El-Sayed responded, saying he is “no apologist for any regime, including our own” and that “the question is whether or not a leader focuses on his or her people. Clearly, the ayatollah did not and clearly Donald Trump and this administration is not either.”
“So again, I'm going to tell you they are white, they are black, they are Arab, they are non Arab, they are Muslim, they are not Muslim,” El-Sayed continued. “They are all the people who had to pump gas this morning to get to work and realize that they were going to have to end up paying tremendously more money because of an illegal, unjustifiable war. So the notion that the ayatollah is dead is one thing, but the notion by which our country did it, fighting a third conflagration in a third country in this year alone, that there is the problem.”
The candidate further argued that “the end doesn’t always justify the means, and I think Americans of all stripes right now are unified by asking, ‘what is the aim here and what are we doing?’”
Jones responded, listing off multiple instances where Iran killed Americans after the current regime took power.
Lawrence B. Jones takes on Democrat who claimed his Muslims were sad Iranian Supreme Leader was killed.
— Jeff Charles, Asker of Questions🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) April 7, 2026
“Who are the people within the community that are sad about the ayatollah being dead? Because the peaceful Muslims that I know ... they reject him and they wanted him dead." pic.twitter.com/n6A8pfz0Ee
There’s so much wrong with El-Sayed’s asinine comments. For starters, comparing the president to Khamenei is disingenuous at best. Trump hasn’t forced women to wear hijabs or summarily executed waves of citizens for protesting. It’s clearly a false equivalence.
It’s also worth noting that El-Sayed might not be in touch with Muslim attitudes toward the Iranian regime.
According to research group GAMAAN, only about 11 percent of Iranians living in Iran supported “the principles of the Islamic revolution and the Supreme Leader,” in 2024, which means 89 percent did not view him favorably.