Michigan Senate candidate responds to backlash over Khamenei comments, calls Iran conflict ‘war we don’t need’

A Michigan Democratic Senate candidate under fire for controversial comments about Iran’s supreme leader responded Wednesday to the backlash, arguing the real issue is the cost of a "war we don’t need to be fighting."

"There are many people who see the downfall of the regime as a good thing, but the question of whether or not it was pursued legally, that's a different question," progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed told "America's Newsroom."

"Whether or not its worth $31 billion of our taxes and counting a billion dollars a day, that's another thing. Whether or not we should be paying higher rates at the pump every single time we try to just get where we're going and pump gas… that [is] a big question, and I'll tell you what, there are a lot of people who are really sad about the fact that they thought that the era of foreign wars, of never-ending regime change wars were over, and here we are."

El-Sayed is one of three Democrats vying to succeed incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters after he announced he would not seek re-election.

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He has received backlash over leaked audio that captured him explaining why he believed he shouldn’t take a public position on the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei because of people in Dearborn, Michigan, who are "sad."

According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, El-Sayed was recorded in a staff meeting strategizing about how to address the Iranian leader’s death after he was killed during U.S. and Israeli military action in the country.

"I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today," he told his team, referencing the large Muslim population in Dearborn. 

"So, like, I just don't want to comment on Khamenei at all."

El-Sayed called Khamenei a "bad man" during the remarks, adding that the fact that he was "bad" does not justify the "breaking of international law and unilateral action… outside of wartime." 

El-Sayed called the Mideast action "illegal" and "immoral" on Wednesday, accusing the "MAGA-backed movement" of taking action that has "used our tax dollars" to raise gas prices despite an earlier vow to never get the U.S. entangled in another foreign war.

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"I just want to remind you that most people in the city of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights are not Arab-American. They are White, and they're worried, just like I am. They're saddened by the fact that their prices go up, and they are watching their gas prices go up with it all to fight a war that we shouldn't really be a part of," he said.

Former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren blasted El-Sayed’s response to the death of the former Iranian supreme leader as a "moral meltdown" while reacting to the leaked audio Tuesday on "America Reports."

Oren told the program, "[Ayatollah] Khamenei is a person who has killed tens of thousands of people, including thousands and thousands of his own citizens, raped and murdered women, gay people, hundreds and hundreds of Americans killed by this man, and the fact that anybody is saddened by his passing, or is afraid to talk about people who are saddened by his passage, is reprehensible."

"It's a moral meltdown, is what it is." 

He also fired back against El-Sayed's accusation that the Iranian conflict "[breaks] international law," accusing the progressive Democrat of knowing nothing about the topic.

"There is nothing remotely illegal about America's interaction, intervention in Iran," Oren said.

"Iran committed literally hundreds of acts of war against the United States since 1979. In what moral universe is responding to that forcibly a violation of international law? It beats me. These people know nothing about international law."

El-Sayed's campaign called the report a "distraction" in a statement released Monday.

"Since this illegal and unjustifiable war has started, we’ve watched 13 brave service members lose their lives," El-Sayed said. "We’ve watched our tax dollars wasted to raise our gas prices. We’re paying over a dollar a gallon more, making life even more unlivable. Americans are paying with their lives and livelihoods for a war MAGA swore they’d never take us into."

The statement continued, "The fact that a rightwing news outlet may have illegally and unethically obtained a deliberation about how to talk about this by way of a disgruntled former employee is only a distraction. They’re distracting from the fact that Donald Trump, Mike Rogers, the entire MAGA base doesn’t want to talk about the pain they’re forcing us all into."

Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.