Student Who Put El-Sayed on the Spot at Town Hall on IRGC Hits Him Even More in Interview

Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was put on the spot by a young student during a town hall at the University of Michigan. 

The student, Iman Dashti, has family in Iran, and he told El-Sayed about some of the horrors they had been through. Dashti asked a couple of simple questions. First, he asked about El-Sayed's statement on holding back on any criticism of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because it might make people in Dearborn sad. Then, secondly, Dashti asked if El-Sayed would condemn the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"Do you stand with us?"

A young Iranian-American student tells Abdul El-Sayed his family was tormented at the hands of the Iranian regime. He says his cousin was hunted by the IRGC and his uncle was sentenced to death and lashed, then asks him directly: Do you stand… pic.twitter.com/gp668ejXFz

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 24, 2026

El-Sayed didn't do either. Now, Dashti has done an interview with Fox's The Will Cain Show, explaining what he thought of El-Sayed's answer. [He begins speaking at about the one-minute mark.]

A PERSIAN STUDENT HANDED ABDUL EL-SAYED THE EASIEST QUESTION IN POLITICS, AND HE STILL COULDN'T ANSWER IT.

The kid asked him point blank if he stands against the IRGC and whether he renounces the people in Dearborn who held vigils for Khamenei. That should take two seconds for… pic.twitter.com/alhNOCucqZ

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) September 24, 2026

What I thought was fascinating was that Dashti admitted that, "in the moment," he thought that El-Sayed had responded well. That's a sign of how slick El-Sayed is, how he can deceive people because of that smoothness. That's a dangerous talent, and when you're a young student, you may not see such slickness. 

But then Dashti realized El-Sayed hadn't actually answered the questions; that it was a "terrible answer." Dashti pointed out to host Will Cain how El-Sayed never condemned the IRGC, didn't answer about Khamenei, and never said he stood with the Persian people, "the one thing I asked him to say." 

"It's unbelievable. You know, you can be charismatic. You can say the right things. You can weave and duck. But he didn't answer the question. And I think it's a huge mask-off moment for Abdul," Iman said. 

As Cain noted, El-Sayed said he stood up for democracy-seeking people around the world, and yet he wouldn't address the specific issue Dashti asked him to: condemning the IRGC. 

Dashti nuked him, "I could not have given him an easier layup. I mean, it's so simple. Just say it. Just say you're against the world's largest sponsor of terror. Just say you're against the government that has killed hundreds of thousands of Persians. And Americans. But he didn't." 

Dashti said he thought it was because a lot of El-Sayed's supporters were supportive of these institutions and the Iranian regime, and "he doesn't want to alienate them." 

Cain said that Dashti was perhaps kind in his analysis, that maybe the other possibility was that El-Sayed doesn't denounce the IRGC. 

In any event, Dashti asked a more revealing question than anything asked by virtually all the media, and El-Sayed's answer should be totally disqualifying for a person who wants to be a United States senator. 

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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