Fox News host Jesse Watters gave a sparing compliment to Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed, calling him “not your typical stiff,” while emphasizing he thinks the Michigan leftist would be a “terrible senator.”
“I actually like Abdul. I probably shouldn’t like him, but I do. I think he’d be a terrible senator, and he’s a little bit of a lunatic. But at least he’s not your typical stiff,” Watters said on his show Jesse Watters Primetime Tuesday.
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Watters hosted el Sayed on his show on Monday in what turned into a contentious interview, as the two sparred over el Sayed’s healthcare plans, the national budget, and his views on transgender issues. The Monday night exchange brought several heated and even awkward moments, including one where a back-and-forth between the primetime host and Senate candidate over child sex change surgeries prompted el Sayed to ask Watters on air if he was circumcised.
The interview drew a wave of media attention as pundits sparred over whether or not it was the right move for leftist el Sayed, who is backed by several socialists, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), to appear on Fox News.
In his evening-after monologue, Watters highlighted several politicos who either said the move promoted a healthy disagreement or speculated about whether el Sayed should have kept to liberal airwaves. The Fox host compared it to the blowback from the left over Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-NY) meeting with Jared Kushner.
“Hakeem talked to Kushner because he wanted to help the country. Abdul talked to me because he wanted to help Michigan and himself,” Watters said.
El Sayed is taking on former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race. The two have swung back and forth with single-digit leads in recent polling in the close race.
Rogers blasted el Sayed for one of his answers in the Watters interview in a new video advertisement. The Rogers ad juxtaposed the fact that el Sayed told Watters he is “not going to defend the Green New Deal” to several clips of the Democrat touting the proposed climate legislation.
EL SAYED GETS SLAMMED FROM RIGHT AND LEFT AS HE REFUSES TO DISAVOW HASAN PIKER
“The only thing you can trust about a conman is that when he’s talking, he’s lying. Conman Abdul El-Sayed now says he ‘won’t defend’ the Green New Deal. But his record tells a different story,” Rogers wrote on X.
The race to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is listed as a “toss-up” by election forecaster Cook Political Report.
