Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said his campaign had nothing to do with a viral grocery store ad endorsing him that has been accused of being anti-Semitic. The video’s origins lie in a completely different race—it was initially made it for Cenk Uygur’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Uygur, host of political commentary show The Young Turks, shared the ad over the weekend, garnering around 6.5 million views as of Tuesday.
The progressive commentator said in his caption that the left-wing political action committee he co-founded, Rebellion PAC, had created it. Some of the footage was clearly repurposed from a campaign ad Uygur ran when he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024, clips from that time show.
The video shows a couple doing grocery shopping and discussing what to buy for their children’s lunches when the woman tells her partner to “put those eggs back” because “we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.” They then complain about the billions of dollars America gives Israel. “Apparently it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza,” the woman says.
At the end, a narrator tells viewers that El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Representative Mike Rogers, “only cares about what Israelis want and so little about what you want” while El-Sayed is “for you.”
El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner told Newsweek that the ad is “not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign…no one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign." She added that El-Sayed has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism.
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Abby Ronson, a spokesperson for Rogers who has accused El-Sayed of being anti-Semitic multiple times on her X feed, told The New York Times that El-Sayad allies were spreading “anti-Israel hate” and said that Rogers is “for every single Michigander.”
Newsweek contacted Rogers’ campaign and Uygur for comment on Tuesday. It also reached out to Rebellion PAC, which describes itself as a movement that rejects “the corporate-driven status quo” and stands “against the establishment.”
The ad shows a couple shopping before a woman says: “Honey, you’re going to have to put those eggs back.”
“They don’t like eggs anymore,” the man asks. “No, they like eggs,” the woman replies, “but we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.”
“Don’t we give Israel $4 billion a year anyways?” the man asks. “Yeah, and now we’re giving them another $26 billion,” his partner says. “Do you know how much that is per American taxpayer? It’s like $161 per person. Apparently it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza.”
Later, a narrator says: “Why does Mike Rogers care so much about Israelis want and so little about what you want?” “Mike Rogers is for ‘they/them,’” the narrator says as the image changes to show Netanyahu, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“Abdul El-Sayed is for you,” the narrator adds, before the clip finishes.
In the 2024 version, the grocery store scene is identical, except that the figures cited for additional U.S. aid to Israel and its cost per taxpayer have been updated.
The $4 billion annual figure likely refers to the $3.8 billion that the U.S. sends in military assistance to Israel, according to the Congressional Research Service. The ad’s $26 billion claim matches a supplemental spending package enacted in April 2024. The legislation also included $9.15 billion for humanitarian assistance, which included Gaza.
Backlash to the Ad
Multiple people have called the ad anti-Semitic, invoking what the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization, describes as "the myth that Jews are to blame for society’s problems" which it says has been "central to antisemitism" throughout history. It says in its educational toolkit about anti-Semitism: "Unlike other forms of prejudice and oppression, antisemitism simultaneously promotes Jews as powerful while blaming them during times of social, political or economic anxiety."
Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the Senate primary, said the ad was “fearmongering about Israel.” She said on X: “Do we need to lower costs by building more homes, securing people’s health care, and creating a fairer federal tax code? Yes, we do!! How we do so is not by blaming the high costs of our goods on the only Jewish homeland in the world.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison also spoke out against the ad, saying it does not benefit El-Sayed’s campaign.
“Abdul is working hard to bridge divisions and build a diverse, winning coalition,” Harrison wrote on X. “This doesn’t help him do that. Not one damn iota.
“We are on the eve of an election with serious consequences for both Muslim and Jewish communities. We need leadership that finds common ground and brings people together. Pouring gasoline on those divisions makes his job harder.”
Uygur has pushed back on accusations of anti-Semitism, saying on X on Monday: “If you think this ad is antisemitic, you’re in a cult and don’t know it. You think Israel is owed all the money it wants from US and if Americans don’t hand it over - without complaint - they’re antisemites. That’s insane, but you don’t realize it because you’ve lost your mind.”
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.