Kid Rock compared Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the 9/11 hijackers during an appearance on In Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night, prompting Maher to interrupt with a fact check — which Kid Rock then pushed back on.
The exchange took place as Maher and his panel discussed El-Sayed, a Muslim doctor and former Detroit health director who is currently running for Michigan’s open Senate seat against Republican Mike Rogers. Former President Barack Obama campaigned with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24 as Democrats make a late push ahead of the midterm elections.
Maher argued that reactions to Muslim candidates in American politics often veer toward opposite extremes, before bringing up Donald Trump’s recent attacks on El-Sayed. When Maher asked Kid Rock if he actually thought the candidate posed the kind of threat described by Trump, the musician pointed to El-Sayed’s upbringing and assimilation into American society before invoking the 9/11 attacks.
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Kid Rock said El-Sayed seemed well assimilated, but argued that the 9/11 hijackers were as well. He went on to say that Islamic extremism “scares me” and questioned whether El-Sayed was hiding more radical beliefs.
Maher disputed the comparison. “The 9/11 hijackers were not assimilated here,” he told Kid Rock, adding that they came from Saudi Arabia. Kid Rock responded in disbelief, wondering if the men flying the planes were actually Saudi.
They largely were. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals, while the other four were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon. The 9/11 Commission says most of the 15 musclebound hijackers entered the United States between late April and late June 2001, just months before the attacks, while the four pilots had generally arrived earlier, so not exactly assimilated Americans, as characterized by Kid Rock.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Kid Rock came to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s defense after Maher criticized his leadership of the Pentagon. Questioning the credentials of military generals who opposed Hegseth, Kid Rock asked, “How many of these generals actually served as Hegseth?” before discussing their journey through the military academy. Maher didn’t correct it in real time, but it’s worth noting that all of the generals and military officers who questioned the Secretary of Defense during these hearings served in the military.
Maher pointed to one possible reason for the musician’s loyalty: Hegseth’s handling of an incident in March, when Army Apache helicopters flew overhead near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home — which the musician unabashedly called “fucking awesome.” The overflight triggered an investigation and the suspension of the crews involved, but Hegseth intervened and ended the investigation. A few weeks later, Kid Rock and Hegseth each took a ride aboard Army Apache helicopters at a military base in Virginia, further examining the use of military assets.
Ironically, these comments came less than two weeks after Kid Rock described Halfway 2 Jesus as part of a conscious effort to become “less polarizing” and said he was trying to “give people more grace in their beliefs.” He also argued that Americans can disagree politically without cutting each other off, adding that “you can always find common ground somewhere, with everyone.”
Kid Rock appeared on the October 30 episode of Real time alongside Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei following an interview with Republican Senator Ted Cruz. See the sequence below.
Kid Rock has Bill Maher’s audience hanging on every word as he delivers a surprisingly thorough takedown of Abdul El-Sayed.
Bill Maher tried to intervene. Kid Rock didn’t let him.
KID ROCK: “Can I tell you about Abdul El-Sayed? …He wrote an opinion piece in college supporting the… pic.twitter.com/xW3rGNOptb
– The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) October 31, 2026
Gn entert
