Former Obama staffers who host the “Pod Save America” podcast debated Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s handling of a recent question about his family’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
While Tommy Vietor and his co-hosts sympathized with El-Sayed over questions they considered “bigoted,” Jon Favreau warned that El-Sayed must keep in mind that he is speaking not just to the questioner, but also to voters who may be concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood itself.
Concerns about alleged ties between El-Sayed’s family and the Muslim Brotherhood emerged after the Washington Free Beacon reported on social media posts in which El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, described her family’s history with the organization, including her and El-Sayed’s mother.
At an October 17 town hall, El-Sayed bristled when an audience member asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. After disavowing the organization, El-Sayed turned the scrutiny back on the audience member, saying, “You’re asking the question because implicitly, you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right? You assume that I wouldn’t disavow, or that I’ll have some higher order allegiance than to the Constitution, correct? Tommy, is that what you imply?”
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Favreau criticized Republican attempts to tie El-Sayed to the organization through his family connections, but argued that the GOP was using the issue to sway voters.
“It’s somewhat smarter for them to throw out the Muslim Brotherhood thing because it’s like, ‘This is a new piece of information that people might have no idea what the Muslim Brotherhood is,’” he said, appearing to frame the tactical mindset of Republican operatives. “‘Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it?’ ‘Terrorist organization.’ ‘Maybe you don’t know the history of the Muslim Brotherhood.’ ‘Maybe it’s got foreign ties to Egypt and he, you know, his family, his family’s from Egypt.'”
“So, to respond to that, as bulls — as it is, and of course, he like knocked it down. But you’ve got to forget about the a–hole asking you the question,” Favreau continued. “You’ve got to give the answer as if someone who might have a question about a Muslim Brotherhood tie is not necessarily like totally Islamophobic and like that kid or like Trump or like Mike Rogers, but like might have a question, and you don’t want — and you don’t want to condescend to that person or be like, ‘No, you’re an a–hole for asking.’ Right?”
“And I’m not saying he did,” he added. “I thought it was a good — I thought he could have used like 20% less condescension in the answer.”
Vietor agreed that El-Sayed’s tone could have been better, and replied, “There’s a slightly more empathetic version of that.”
Fellow co-host Jon Lovett said, “Stop fighting with that guy and speak to the people that are not.”
Favreau recalled his experience working for former President Barack Obama and said that, regardless of whether a characterization of a candidate’s statements is fair, candidates and public officials have to be careful about rhetoric and tone when speaking to voters.
“You can say this from the cheap seats because I am sure when you are Abdul, and you’re going around doing this and there are people who are f—ing just calling into question your loyalty to your country that you love, it must f—ing infuriate you,” Favreau said. “And it’s not fair that what he has to do in response is to eat s— and just give a nice answer with a smile.”
“But like we were there when Barack Obama had to do it, and you know Zohran Mamdani had to do it and like, unfortunately, there’s a double standard, and it’s unfair, but you still have to do it to win an election anyway and it f—ing sucks,” he added.
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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Jesse Arm, vice president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute and a former pollster who has followed the Michigan Senate race, suggested El-Sayed’s confrontational demeanor may be a key reason he is not doing as well against his Republican opponent as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee is doing in her race in Michigan.
“The ‘Pod Save America’ guys are partisan hacks who bend over backward to excuse El-Sayed’s radicalism and dismiss legitimate scrutiny as bigotry. But even they recognize that his nastiness and condescension are deeply off-putting,” Arm told Fox News Digital.
“And if even his most sympathetic defenders can see it, imagine how he comes across to ordinary Michigan voters,” he added. “This is a big part of the reason he’s poised to dramatically underperform the state’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee.”