Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed engaged in a heated exchange with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday while discussing the war in Iran.
El-Sayed, a left-wing Democrat and former public health official, holds a narrow polling advantage over Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers in a pivotal Michigan race. Democrats view the seat as essential to their hopes of taking control of the Senate.
Opposition to the Iran war and broader US military intervention abroad has become a central theme of El-Sayed’s campaign.
MacCallum pressed him on those positions during her Fox News program, in a conversation that began with recent terrorist attacks. El-Sayed described the attacks as “awful and terrible” following the FlyDubai hijacking.
She cited El-Sayed’s argument that Americans should remain “curious” about the people who carry out such acts, including what motivates them, why violence occurs and how pain may influence those responsible.
MacCallum interpreted those remarks as suggesting that the United States had pursued misguided policies and that terrorism was somehow “our fault.”
“No, it’s not — the victim is never at fault, and terrorism is wrong no matter who perpetrates the terrorism or who it is perpetrated against,” El-Sayed replied before turning the discussion toward Iran.
He argued that war itself represents a system of violence and said the United States should not be involved in what he called an unnecessary conflict in Iran.
El-Sayed argues Iran threat had been contained
MacCallum countered that Iran had created a serious regional threat and had been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.
El-Sayed maintained that the nuclear danger posed by Iran had been constrained under the nuclear agreement negotiated during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The debate unfolded on the same day El-Sayed announced a Michigan rally featuring the former president.
MacCallum challenged his assessment, saying Iran had violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the JCPOA, according to several estimates.
El-Sayed continued to defend the agreement and asked whether escalating military action would actually make Americans safer.
When MacCallum tried to respond, he asked to finish his point. He said the United States could have chosen diplomacy but instead went to war, creating a crisis at the Strait of Hormuz that was disrupting the movement of oil and gas.
MacCallum eventually responded by citing a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that efforts to move oil through the strait and the surrounding region were nearing normal levels.
El-Sayed then questioned why Americans were still facing elevated gasoline prices if the situation was improving.
MacCallum said economists expected prices to begin falling.
El-Sayed pushed back, saying that was not what Michigan residents were experiencing when they filled up at the pump.
Trump reacts to El-Sayed’s interview
The exchange grew increasingly tense, with MacCallum accusing El-Sayed of filibustering. He responded by suggesting that she was a supporter of the Iran war.
Later Monday night at a rally in Nebraska, Donald Trump weighed in on the interview and dismissed El-Sayed as “a total communist.”
‘El-Sayed was interviewed on a certain network. I won’t tell you which one (FOX). They hardly fight him at all. Why are they putting these people on our television networks? Why they always have to put Jessica Tarlov, another loser? They should stop,’ he added.
Michigan is one of the true toss-ups in November, as Progressive insurgent Abdul El-Sayed was declared the winner of a rollercoaster Democratic primary for the US Senate after squeaking by with a slim victory over Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
His single-point win raises new questions about whether his strength among base voters can translate to a general election this fall, as Democrats look to flip four seats necessary to secure a majority in the upper chamber.
El-Sayed fared well with Arab-American and younger voters, while Stevens nabbed support from older Democrats as well as African-American voters who do not seem ready to back El-Sayed in November.
Rogers, a former House GOP lawmaker, has been biding his time as the GOP’s presumptive nominee for months, waiting on a challenger to emerge from the Democratic Party.
The seat is rated as a ‘toss up’ by the Cook Political Report.