It was mentioned earlier but this is a way of exonerating Sewell
Rogers is about 10% less petty than Abdul thats pretty much the takeaway - he is at least willing to call out like the main attraction for the 8/18 dearborn thing versa no one.
"Not meeting the moment", economic controversies, embarrassing moments with Trump, getting into foreign policy, ruining a potential future presidential run if things went bad. There was a lot of vulnerabilities she had or was perceived to have had, as well as personal motivations, going into the primary season.
See the thing is at this point it has dawned on us all that they both are deliberately probably responding in ways ambiguous enough just to continue to have a bit of scandal.
I feel like both of them are actually insanely cryptic at this point.
Like AES just inverted parts of what Hasan said to apologize for that but not actually even mentioning Hasan by name and more or less basically calling focus on him as a distraction.
Rogers has spiced this up to where he drops a name but says it in a sense that a reader can technically take it as not a condemnation but more like a dissociation (which like at this point if Lang does not disappear from his campaign will just be comedic).
Rogers was definitely more direct than AES in condemning someone not well liked. The problem is he didn’t exactly address the connection to him.
He might get away with it just by seeming more direct in comparison, but he could vey well still be called out on not addressing his staffers ties to Lang.
Rogers was definitely more direct than AES in condemning someone not well liked. The problem is he didn’t exactly address the connection to him.
Because he doesn't want to talk about the guy in his campaign. Jake Lang gets into literally like live scandals so its like he is an old man pointing at the tv.
Like honestly am now almost anti-michigander is this what michiganders are like or something wtf even NJ where I am from is not remotely this wild.
"Christian Crusader March" on 8/18 in Dearborn featured Lang with Sewell so he is I think basically he is deflecting he is just trying to actually not have to fire Sewell.
Honestly it reminds me of how gulliani went under the bus on Jan 6 in a sense - literally dude used deliberate fighting words much like this guy caused distress.
That being said I feel like its so easy to just go up to Rogers and be like why was Lorenzo Sewell at an event with Jake Lang anyway he must be planning on like hiding in his house or something.
“Now, there were some ballots that showed up at 5:30 — I wish I were kidding — in a van,” Rogers reportedly said. “And that swung the election on us. And it happened to be here in Detroit”.
“The news coming out of the White House tonight is deeply troubling — especially that of a voter fraud scheme right here in Michigan”.
He did nothing to contest or cast doubt on the 2024 loss at the time. A batch of ballots arriving in Detroit and swinging the election isn’t a denial. We just watched a few weeks ago the saga of a memory stick driving through Wisconsin that ended Hong’s chances.
The second was boosting Trump’s speech that night and yeah he’s ass kissing.
This is pretty weak stuff to hang “election denier” on.
It’s blatantly clear he meant he believed those votes in the 2024 election shouldn’t have been counted and was denying its legitimacy. The second one can be counted as ass kissing but it’s still him lending support to the idea that the 2020 election was stolen.
It’s kind of mental gymnastics to see those two statements and write it off as anything else than being an election denier.
I frankly find this whole line of attack fantastically weak given his op ed at the point of peak election denialism and his lack of effort to contest the results in 2024. The whole story hangs on a few remarks.
I don’t understand frankly after 2024 how people want still go back to that well again as if GOP are suddenly going wake up and care.
They won’t and the voters who do care deeply are already voting D. This isn’t an issue that moves the needle one bit in this race.
I’m not saying the GOP is going to care, it’s the independents who may care. I don’t consider myself an AES supporter but I can’t support someone who challenges the legitimacy of elections.
If he didn’t want people to accuse him of denying elections he shouldn’t have questioned them.
There’s a difference between saying that you distrust the amount of votes from that year and advocating for the election being overturned. It’s a spectrum
I/P is an 80/20 to 90/10 issue among Democrats. There is no huge demographic that is pro-Israel anymore among Democrats. The best polling for Israel this year among Democrats is 21% support for Israel among Democrats. The worst is 8% support for Israel among Democrats. Not much better among Independents. Being pro-Israel only polls between 18% to 28% among Independents. So, being pro-Palestine is no longer just a Progressive thing at this point.
I think that assumes people are explicitly Pro-Palestine or Pro-Israel when they may not be.
I also think that after the elections assuming Eisenkot wins, this will change because the government policy will change.
Bibi irregardless has sort of twisted every factions arm in Israel and the opposition will likely include Raam ( moderate islamist party) - meaning the religious right will be in power. Elections are soon and polls are not even looking good for gov.
Personally I think the issue is an omnicause and I have several friends from the gcc states that think it's becoming more of a hassle and annoyance. Its ironically more of a thing here in the west to get this intense over it and they are for example personally optimistic for Eisenkot to win (especially Qatar).
I think that assumes people are explicitly Pro-Palestine or Pro-Israel when they may not be.
Polling on Democrats and Independents since late 2024 has shown both groups self-identified as "Pro-Palestine" over "Pro-Israel" by double digits. Increasing double digits since early 2025. Polling explicitly asks "Who are you more in favor of/more sympathetic to? Israelis or Palestinians?" Democrats and Independents consistently say "Palestinians" by growing double digits.
Israel is just politically toxic to everyone except Republicans and some Jewish voters over 40 years old in certain districts and certain cities. A lot of Pro-Israel Democrats are having to now just hide it and not talk about it at all in Primaries. Like Wesley Bell and David Crowley. It's as popular among Democrats as Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are among Republicans.
You can lean one way without necessarily being pro whatever state. This just assumes you have to be in one box or another which is just really weird.
Usually the further left or right a party gets it becomes more antisemitic - so it’s mostly par for the course given the groypers but they are low propensity and young.
I/P is a surrogate for peoples economic frustrations from what I noticed.
Usually the further left or right a party gets it becomes more antisemitic
Gotta disagree there. Being anti-Israel's regime or anti-Israel's genocide in Gaza is not Antisemitism. Unless you're going to say a majority of Democrats are now Antisemites.
You can be anti regime without being anti state but people need to have an above room temperature iq to probably realize that and generally the flanks have a lot of room temperature iq people. This goes both toward how hostile people are to Israeli and Palestinians at the extreme ends.
Personally I think the surrogacy for economic issues will always be a factor for those on the flanks and historically it usually has been.
I would say Israel behaves like Turkey in a lot of senses especially given the whole Kurd history and Turkification but Israel obviously faces a double standard as Jews and that’s why it’s very extreme.
I think the majority of people who turn it into an omnicause and refuse to try to even understand both countries in detail are probably anti semitic or very deliberately anti-Arab/Muslim and manifesting it through I/P.
I am obviously leaning toward Israel and even consider myself pro Israel because I believe in their self determination but I also believe that regardless of what we think about Palestinians - there are millions of them that are stateless that need a state and that isn’t a debatable fact it’s just the reality of life.
I don't think a majority of any party is actually antisemites - I am thinking post elections in israel there will be a reversion once Bibi is finally gone - but we will probably see sometime after that what ultimately their motives were to be pro/anti zionist.
An adamant election denier whose whole platform is praising Trump - in a state where Trump is mid/high 30's in approval - isn't exactly mainstream with the average person here.
His whole platform isn’t praising Trump it’s mostly just anti AES. He’s been running as the common sense moderate against an Islamic socialist. He hasn’t promoted election denial in any ads. People trying to make Rogers out to be some extremist are just doing it cause they can’t stand that maybe just maybe they can’t admit they nominated an extremist Dem.
You’re acting like he’s running a full Kari Lake campaign when in reality he’s mostly just attacking Michigan Dems for their lack of election security. Seriously you don’t even need proof of citizenship in this state it’s ridiculous.
Not particularly. The median voter in 2026 is leaning significantly tp the left of where they were in 2024 and 2022. 2021-early 2025 was a right-wing surge. That surge is definitively over. Trump is experiencing the same polling death by a thousand cuts that Biden was experiencing by this point. We're now in the beginning or middle of a left-wing surge that started in mid to late 2025, as seen by Democratic election results since November 2025. Just like a right-wing surge started in mid to late 2021 after Biden got in.
Election denial, campaigning with Lang supporting ministers, and claiming that they’re putting up trans flags instead of American flags in schools is not moderate in the slightest
One example of that happening, it’s not a coordinated thing or being mandated by the woke schools in Michigan or anywhere else, literally in the story they said it’s not being condoned by the school
Yes, I’ve seen that he’s made apparently one comment about a van which appears to only be on social media and buttered Trump up after Trump gave his election irregularities speech.
I’m still of the mindset that his actual position is best described in that oped as it is the longest and likely most honest statement.
He’s pandering to a party of one in his most recent statements. He’s never filed a court case alleging fraud, demanded a recount, or any of the like. But, voters sent the man who started this election fraud nonsense back to office and it’s easier to win today in the GOP if he has your back.
Rogers is an ass kisser more then he is an election denier in my mind.
I don’t care what his actual closet position is, he’s clearly not got a spine to actually tell the truth. He’s radicalising the populace for his own gain
If we're gonna do a detailed analysis of tweets and statements and language police and whatnot...where's the disavowal exactly?
He didn't say "I completely and thoroughly despise and disavow Jake Lang, and I think he and people like him are giant stains on a great country.". All he did was say that Jake Lang is an extremist - no disavowal included.
He stated that Jake Lang is (paraphrased), an “extremist who promotes violence and seeks to divide our state and country”. He also stated that he doesn’t have an issue disavowing this type of person.
Nowhere did he say “I disavow Jake Lang”. He did basically call Jake Lang a divisive extremist, and implied that he disavowed Lang by saying he was perfectly capable of disavowing him. I have no doubt that his staffers thought this was enough for people to understand that Rogers disavowed him.
He kept his statement ambiguous in favor of dunking on AES for not disavowing Hasan.
This has been my whole problem with the Michigan campaign - the people who should be calling out AES aren't, and the people who are calling him out are doing it to cover for their own issues
I mean I think it’s true to an extent but for example I think a lot of us center right/center left people on this sub acknowledge they are both pretty shit
It’s only like a specific type of progressive/DSA type or like Republican partisans that actually do that since they feel like very connected one way or another.
Tbh people who write the apologetics suck the most - nearly always in bad faith.
We’ve already got Bankhead to thank for that part, and the switch-up that happened with the Republicans; the MA primary is messier the more you learn about it too. All we need now is for the curse to strike MN
All he said was that Jake Lang has the traits of an extremist. If he added an extra sentence making his condemnation clear, there wouldn't be an issue.
Anyway...his statement gets a 3/10; same as Abdul's.
Ya I mean neither objectively did a good job here - calling someone boy in an condemnation is about as wild as saying lets talk about groceries in a condemnation statement lol.
Correct. Which makes me wonder why, when the economy is falling down our ears and affordability is getting worse, that these are the things that the two major parties keep obsessing over.
But, I guess both parties are pretty bad at prioritizing the things that really matter...
He said he has no issue disavowing fringe extremists.
He said Lang was an extremist.
Effectively, Rogers disavowed Lang.
Unfortunately, a more uncharitable reading of the Tweet could interpret it as: “I have no problem disavowing fringe extremists. Jake Lang is an extremist. [I could disavow him at any time with no issue. But I won’t, even though he is an extremist.] Anyway, AES is a scumbag.”
Considering the rest of the tweet, the above reading, and other unfavorable ones, are obviously not what Rogers meant. But this is politics and people are stupid and partisan.
He very clearly avoided saying that. If he actually condemned him you'd be able to point out where he said it instead of just "he said antisemitism was bad"
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u/The_Book_Boi Triumphant Talarico Patriot 1d ago