A reporter tried to put Abdul El-Sayed on the spot over Barack Obama. The Michigan Democratic Senate candidate answered with a question of his own, and the clip is now going viral. Obama is set to campaign beside him in Detroit on Saturday, October 24.
Abdul El-Sayed’s answer about Barack Obama goes viral
Video of the exchange took off on X after a reporter asked about why he is campaigning with Obama, whom he has criticized before. El-Sayed told his team, “I’ll take the question.” He then returned to the microphone and pointed at the man who had asked it. “Do you love your dad?” El-Sayed asked. “Yeah? You agree with everything your dad has ever done? Do you?”
“Not entirely,” the reporter admitted. That admission gave El-Sayed his opening. Admiring someone and still wishing they had handled certain things differently is normal, he said, and “There’s no world in which I get to run for office without somebody like President Obama.”
Abdul El-Sayed said he first watched Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and it struck him that he had “never seen politics look like that before.” Further adding, “It was the first time I ever saw myself in a politician.” He noted that both men have fathers who emigrated from Africa and that both grew up in blended families. Then he turned to humor. “He got a funny name, I got a funny name,” El-Sayed said. “He’s tall and skinny; that’s where it ends, I’m 5’8”.”
The Democratic nominee said he holds real gratitude for what Obama made possible, but he also had criticisms while the former president was in office. His campaign, he explained, is his way of continuing the work: “I’m trying to pick up the baton and run.” Resentment plays no part, he insisted. “It’s actually out of deep love for him,” he said. El-Sayed has spoken critically of Obama before. Also accused the president of leaning too far toward the right and letting the economy “stagnate.” Now they will appear together at the Detroit event.
