Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul el Sayed, has a stock answer whenever he’s asked about his close friend and campaign surrogate, Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11, called the U.S. government worse terrorists than al Qaeda, and has openly praised various jihadis and Communist dictators while expressing a seething hatred for the United States. El Sayed deflects, saying that his race isn’t about a “streamer from California,” feigning amnesia over Piker’s name.

In a recent interview with Fox News’s Martha MacCallum, the candidate said his “conversation” with Piker was no different than the on-air discussion he was having with her. This might have been a compelling answer if he’d invited MacCallum to appear with him on the stump five times in Michigan, which is what el Sayed did with Piker (el Sayed recently lied that he and Piker had only appeared together once on the trail).