Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sparked an online firestorm Tuesday after smearing Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as a “Hamas supporter,” only for the remark to quickly backfire.
“Here's a sentence you would never have thought you'd read ten years ago: A Hamas supporter may well be the Democrats' nominee to represent Michigan in the Senate,” Pompeo wrote Tuesday in a social media post on X. “The Democratic Party is headed down a truly dark road – and all Americans need to wake up to this threat.”
El-Sayed, who’s projected to win his Democratic primary race, has never voiced support for Hamas, the Palestinian governmental and militant group. He has, however, been a fierce critic of Israel and its bombardment of Gaza, which countless human rights groups and a United Nations committee have labeled a genocide.
As argued by former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, however, Pompeo’s smear was ironic given his own past meeting with a Taliban leader in 2020.
“There is more evidence that you are a Taliban supporter than there is that El-Sayed is a Hamas supporter,” Hasan wrote in a social media post on X.
In September of 2020, Pompeo shared a photograph of himself standing beside Taliban Political Deputy Abdul Ghani Baradar amid the Trump administration’s peace negotiations with the Taliban, the Afghan governmental and militant group.
“He calls Abdul ‘a Hamas supporter,’ [because] Abdul is Arab and opposes genocide,” wrote journalist Rania Khalek in a social media post on X. “They’re gonna crank up the racism big time.”
Rather than express frustration, political activist and comedian Tadhg Hickey said it was “beautiful to watch” Pompeo – who he described as a “tiresome racist" – become “yesterday’s news.”
There is more evidence that you are a Taliban supporter than there is that El-Sayed is a Hamas supporter. https://t.co/mKdQtD8Ztepic.twitter.com/2sWr5szH2P
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 4, 2026