Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed takes aim at President Donald Trump’s economic record, arguing that the 2026 Senate race is fundamentally about the economy and accusing those in power of having “corrupted” it.
El-Sayed’s remarks put Trump’s economic policies, inflation, jobs, wages and the cost of living at the center of the political debate as the Michigan Senate race heats up.
Watch the full clip as El-Sayed lays out his economic argument and targets the Trump administration over its handling of the U.S. economy.
#AbdulElSayed #ElSayed #DonaldTrump #Trump #TrumpEconomy #USPolitics #MichiganPolitics #MichiganSenate #SenateRace #Economy #Inflation #CostOfLiving #Jobs #Democrats #TrumpNews
El-Sayed’s remarks put Trump’s economic policies, inflation, jobs, wages and the cost of living at the center of the political debate as the Michigan Senate race heats up.
Watch the full clip as El-Sayed lays out his economic argument and targets the Trump administration over its handling of the U.S. economy.
#AbdulElSayed #ElSayed #DonaldTrump #Trump #TrumpEconomy #USPolitics #MichiganPolitics #MichiganSenate #SenateRace #Economy #Inflation #CostOfLiving #Jobs #Democrats #TrumpNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00The party made a decision, and this is about bringing folks back together to realize
00:04whatever our differences might have been, they are so much smaller than what brings us together.
00:09We're up against Trumpism in the form of a guy like Mike Rogers, a guy who wants to rubber
00:14stamp every single thing Donald Trump wants to do for his petty little vanity, right? Think about
00:18a trade war with Canada. I mean, Canadians are the only people I know who are going to
00:22preemptively apologize for something they didn't even do. So if you're picking a war with Canada,
00:25you're just an asshole. And Mike Rogers wants to look the other way. Mike Rogers doesn't
00:30want to have a debate. What's the first one he wants to have in October? He's dodging two
00:33Michigan Debate Commission debates. It's because he's a coward. It's because he is corrupt,
00:38and he does not want to have the answer for his corruption or his cowardice, and he knows
00:41I'm going to make him answer. So this is an opportunity to bring folks together to remind
00:44that we have 66 days left to put our shoulders into the work to win the race. We want to
00:49stand
00:49up to Donald Trump and all he has done to corrupt our democracy. It is going to be the people
00:53in this room leading that fight, and it's going to be all of us coming together to take
00:56our own. We'll go to Lily. So obviously we've got unity literally on the badges today. We're
01:03talking about bringing the party together. As you've been getting around to the caucus
01:08rooms today, what has that been like? What have you been hearing from folks, and are people
01:12feeling unified, do you think? I think people understand what's at us thinking. People understand
01:17that we have the opportunity to win the future. Look, 500,000 more people voted in the Democratic
01:23primary than voted in the Republican primary. This is an existentially bad economy. And for
01:29all that Trump and Rogers and JD Vance, who apparently I guess is coming to Michigan next
01:35week, I guess he wants to root for a good football team. For all that they want to make this
01:40race
01:40about anything but the economy, this race is fundamentally about the economy and how they've
01:47corrupted it. Donald Trump is fighting a trade war with Canada to curry favor with corporations
01:52and to make his little ego feel a little bit better about the fact that he's just failed
01:56as a president. And at the end of the day, people pay for that. We pay what, $3,200 a
02:03year as Michiganders? 55% more than any other state for his vanity tariffs? And they don't
02:08want to talk about that. They want to talk about everything that's not that. They want to
02:12make this race about every which culture war issue. I just want to remind people that you
02:17can't afford your groceries. You can't afford your gas. You can't afford your rent. You
02:21can't afford your car. You can't afford your car insurance. You can't afford to send your
02:25kid to play baseball. You can't afford much in Trump's economy. And if you want to turn
02:30that around, maybe the opportunity to vote for somebody who's never taken a dime from a corporation
02:35to run a campaign, who desperately, deeply wants you to be able to afford your life and wants you
02:39to have health care, maybe that's the solution. They don't want to talk about any of those things.
02:43Other questions? Yes, I'll do it. Okay. I'll go to Fox News. Thank you.
02:46Fox News. Good to see you guys. I was on your channel on Monday. You were, sir.
02:49Great conversation. Say hello to Jesse for me. We will. We will. Dana Nestle's not here today,
02:53and she pointed back to the shouting of the April convention. And just recently,
02:59this past week, she also talked about your comments regarding the Michigan terrorist
03:03incident here at the synagogue. And she said that your comments, to a degree,
03:07may be justified domestic terrorism. I'd like you to respond if you'd like.
03:11Well, look, a lot of elected officials are not here today, far fewer people than we're here in April.
03:16And at the end of the day, our responsibility is to come together as a party. And I made clear
03:21I got
03:21a really important question about that at the Jewish caucus. And my comments might have been
03:26misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify, right? To anybody who feels like
03:30my comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry. That was not my intention.
03:34We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do is offer context
03:39for why it happened, but it wasn't the time for context. And you don't ever want to trample somebody's
03:42pain. But I also want folks to remember what's at stake here. This election is not about the past.
03:48This election is about the future. If we want to rubber stamp Donald Trump's disastrous policies,
03:53if we're serious about protecting our democracy, if we're serious about standing up for unions and
03:57providing health care, then we need to be serious about what it takes to unify and win in November.
04:03And I would just say to any and all folks who believe that Donald Trump is an existential risk
04:08to our democracy, the time is now for us to show up and fight for that democracy. I'm looking forward
04:12to
04:12fighting alongside anyone and everyone who's willing to take that back. I know that we're going to need
04:17every single Democrat, but I also know that we're going to need independents and Republicans.
04:21And I want folks to understand that whatever challenges we face right now, whatever differences
04:26might divide us, we all have to pump gas unless we've got an EV. In which case, we are in
04:32a situation
04:33right now where they're trying to make it impossible for you to have a choice in cars. We've got to
04:37be the
04:38country that continues to lead in internal combustion engines. But the idea that you have choices is a
04:43problem. So whatever it is that you're driving, it's costing you more. DTE is raising your utility
04:48rates. You're worried about being able to afford steak at the grocery store, ground chuck at the
04:52grocery store, any meat at the grocery store, vegetables too. You're worried about the fact
04:56that these tariffs continue to blow out your budget. You're worried about seeing a doctor.
05:00Those things are things. I don't care how you pray, who you love, how you identify. I don't care
05:05where you are in the state. Those things affect you. It is time for us to get money out of
05:08politics so we can
05:09put money back in pockets and pass Medicare for all. That's what we're focused on. If we want to
05:13stand up to Donald Trump and the disastrous economy he's created, it starts here.
05:16Let's go to your left, CNN.
05:19I've talked to the Jewish Democrats here. We appreciated your
05:22comment about the hurt people, hurt people of mine earlier. But some of them still have
05:27concerns about your relationship with the Sun Piker. They'd like to see you do more.
05:32Some have concerns with... I'm just going to say this. I'm going to stop you right there.
05:36If we're here where? What state is this? We're in the state of Michigan. If you want to make this
05:41race about a streamer in California, I just think you're missing the vote. This is about affordability
05:45in Michigan. This is about being able to see a doctor in Michigan. This is about Donald Trump's
05:49disastrous policies in Michigan. That's what I'm focused on right now. I am not interested in a
05:54conversation about a social media person in California. And for folks who want to make this
05:57race about a social media person in California, let's not forget what actually matters in our politics,
06:02what our politics really are about. I don't ever want my comments to hurt anybody's feelings.
06:06It's important to me that people understand that I take seriously the pain of all communities in
06:11this state. But I don't want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. It's just
06:16not a serious conversation. Why did you bring an issue? All right. We already went to Fox News.
06:20Who are you? Fox News. You can ask Jesse about that. I have a question about that too.
06:25All right. You don't want to have a conversation, but there are Jewish voters who do want to have
06:29that conversation. And everyone I've talked to has been asking me to ask you whether you will condemn
06:34this. Well, I'm happy to have a conversation with my voters, but if they want to have a conversation
06:39to the press, I was here. We were having a conversation. I'm just telling you this is not
06:43a campaign that is about a single streamer in California. This is about affordability in Michigan.
06:49Anybody who's ever said that they're existentially worried about Donald Trump, anybody who's ever
06:53said that they believe in religious pluralism and the right to pray as you choose to pray,
06:58all that we hold dear is on the line. It's time for us to unite around taking that line.
07:02Do you feel like it was a conversation? All right. All right. Guys, guys, guys. We're going to take one
07:06at a time.
07:06We'll go Remington. Abdul, Mike Rogers, his campaign has not commented on tariffs.
07:12Mike Dodgers didn't talk about tariffs? Oh, wow. That is so surprising to me. He dodged a hard
07:18question from the press. Oh, my God. So go into what that says in your eyes about him and his
07:25candidates.
07:26He's a corrupt coward. I mean, look, the man has taken five million dollars to run his campaigns
07:31direct corporations in the past. I don't even know how much he's taking right now. All of his campaign
07:37is funded by the worst folks in American politics. You got Donald Trump, who's about to throw, what,
07:43another 40 million dollars? I don't know what to do, like Vanity Project and Vanity commercials about
07:46himself. I mean, he's welcome to do that. The more he's talking about himself, better off we all argue.
07:53But to the bigger picture, Mike Rogers won't talk about any of that. Like, I went on Jesse, right?
07:59Like, me and Jesse Waters had a conversation, right? He won't even go on Jesse Waters. This is
08:05afraid to actually take any questions that might at all get him to actually have to talk about the
08:09issues at play in Michiganders' lives. The man dodges any and every opportunity to have a conversation
08:14about the things that Michiganders actually care about, which tells you that not only is he corrupt,
08:18but he is a coward. Mike Rogers, you are a coward. You are not serious about actually governing for
08:23people. You have nothing to say about anything anyone's facing. This campaign is not about a guy in
08:28California. It is about you and me and Donald Trump. And every single time he and you say my name,
08:35all
08:35you're doing is reminding people that you got nothing to say about the affordability crisis. You got
08:39nothing to say about healthcare. You got nothing to say about the war. You got nothing to say about the
08:42trade war. You got nothing to say about anything. We've got an opportunity to have a debate on Fox 2.
08:48On the 15th. I hope I get to see you there, but I probably won't.
08:51We've got a few more minutes. We'll go here first. I'm curious, how are you going to have
08:55your own conversations with a teacher in the grads? There are some people in the caucus who felt like
08:59just two questions wasn't enough of a conversation. So if you've noticed in any of the caucus rooms,
09:03you don't take questions most of the time. The fact that I did take questions is actually out of the
09:07ordinary. Second, I'm going to be going to the summer sympa tomorrow, where I'm going to have the
09:11conversation and get the opportunity to sit down. But I'm going to have conversations the same way that most people
09:15have
09:15conversations where you sit down, you look somebody in the face, they say something,
09:18then I say something, then you look something else. Conversations are not difficult to have.
09:21And you know, as I've always told anybody in the state, you open the door for me and invite me,
09:25I'm happy to come. We might not agree on anything. But I think there's a lot more that we agree
09:29on
09:30than we disagree on. And I also think it's really important for us to realize that at the end of
09:34the day, the things that we face together, I mean, you guys have watched the campaign that
09:39Mike Rogers has waged. This is a campaign that is about specifically trying to identify some kinds
09:46of people as being less American than other people. He doesn't want to actually have a conversation about
09:50the issues that Michiganders face. He'd rather have a conversation about identity. And I just think
09:54it's important for all of us who know the experience of being told that we're less American than other
09:59people, that we've been together to take that on. And I'm looking forward to working alongside my
10:04Jewish sisters and brothers to fight for an America where all of us are included, where none of our
10:09safety is in Iran's room. And I'm looking forward to continue those conversations. But also, let's not
10:14forget that all that unites us is bigger than anything that divides us.
10:18Lauren, next, Rich. To your point about the conversation about identity, do you want to
10:23respond directly to any of the claims that Mike Rogers' campaign or other Republicans have made about
10:29your identity or your personal family? There are some people who want America to be small like
10:33you. And there are some of us who want America to be big enough for everybody. Mike Rogers wants
10:38America to be small like you. Donald Trump wants America to be small like you. J.D. Vance wants
10:44America to be small like Ohio. And I think we all have an opportunity to come together, beyond the
10:50different cities that divide us, to demand an America to be small. And I'm fighting for that
10:56America. It's the America I've always known. But for a small number of people who continue to try to
11:01voice their smallness on the rest of us, the America I know is a place where people come together,
11:06where we build something that's greater than the sum of its parts, where we don't ask how someone
11:11prays. We ask what they pray for. We don't care as much about different names. We're a lot more
11:15interested in whether or not people care to know their name. That's them. That's the America that has
11:19greeted me across the 530 some, whatever it is, public events that we've done. I mean, 110 different
11:25cities. That is the America I know, the America I love, the America I'm working for. And so they're going
11:31to keep trying to make it small. They're going to keep trying to divide us because they got no answers
11:34around the problems that unite us. We've got answers around the problems that unite us,
11:37and we're going to focus on that. Last question, Craig, and then we're going to wrap.
11:40You know, there's a lot of Jewish residents in Michigan that don't have to be at these rooms today.
11:44They're not going to let the media in tomorrow at that event on Sunday. Well, you were there, right?
11:49No, I wasn't there. All right. Well, somebody was there. They had a video. Well, I'm asking you to tell
11:53people, what is your message to Jewish residents in Michigan who are concerned by comments that you've made
11:58in the past? Here's a chance for you to talk to them directly. We may not agree on everything.
12:03When it comes to foreign policy, I believe deeply in equal rights to peace, dignity,
12:07and self-determination for Palestinian and Jewish Israelis alike. I'm not going to stop fighting
12:11for Palestinian self-determination because all of the money that we have spent to foreclose on
12:16it is money that should have been spent here, right? The question of where we spend our tax dollars,
12:20that should be a foregone conclusion. It should be spent here. And people get real mad about that.
12:24I understand. But that does not mean that I will not stand up forthrightly for safety for all
12:30communities. And I believe in the safety and the dignity of Jewish kids like I believe in the safety
12:35and dignity of my own kids. And we can show here in Michigan that how we can disagree agreeably on
12:43some of those issues having to do with what we do 6,000 miles away and show that we can
12:47stand arm in arm
12:48to protect the well-being of all of us here at home. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
12:53I think it's important for folks to understand that the more we allow people to divide us,
12:59especially the people like Mike Rogers who want to rubber stamp public policy that tells us that
13:04some people should not belong here and cannot belong here, the more we allow them to divide us,
13:08the less safe any of us get. We have to come together as folks who understand what it's like
13:13to be told we're not enough of. We have to come together around our mutual safety. And that is
13:18something I'm committed to. So I'm looking forward to continuing that conversation. As I've always
13:23said, if you invite me in, I will come. We may not always agree, but I want to be able
13:28to demonstrate
13:28how we can disagree agreeably. We can advocate for the things that we believe in peaceably, knowing
13:34that we're going to be safe to do so and that we can build an America where regardless of how
13:38you pray,
13:38if you pray, that you are safe to pray as you choose to pray or not at all. Thank you,
13:43Press.
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