“You’d give them back their Air Force, their Navy?” Watters asked El-Sayed about Iran.
“No, I’d go back to the time when we were at peace and we had nuclear containment,” El-Sayed said.
“Now Jesse, you like to, I mean look, I understand selective memory about history, but we had a JCPOA that was well negotiated, that actually had nuclear non-proliferation far more securely than what we have right now after having gone to war for the better part of six months.”
This is an absolute bullseye of a point.
Obama’s Iran deal was ironclad and ensured that Iran wouldn’t obtain nuclear weapons.Trump tore it up because he hates everything related to our first Black President and Republicans cheered him on as he did it.Now, we find ourselves embroiled in a failed war to supposedly destroy Iran’s nuclear program, even though our own intelligence agencies concluded that they were not pursuing such a weapon.
Obama used diplomacy to score an unprecedented win.
Trump used military force and it ended in a historic defeat.
“Yeah, I like the fact that the nuke program is buried under a mountain of rubble, they can’t even get access to it, but that’s me,” said Watters, trotting out a childish White House talking point.
“I think we’ll figured [sic] it out.The thing you said about—”
“Let me just stop you right there,” said El-Sayed, refusing to let him pivot.
“Sure.
Go ahead,” said Watters.
“I understand you’re not good at math.
I get that.I’ll give you that,” said El-Sayed.”But science, we gotta talk about science, okay?You understand that like nuclear material doesn’t just go away because you buried it under a mountain of rubble.You understand they can still go back and bury it out, right?”
“Yeah, we’re watching it from Space Force,” said Watters.
“So we’re not any more secure than we were back then,” hammered El-Sayed.
“Okay, let’s move on,” said Watters, unable to defend his point.
He then asked El-Sayed about his claim that Republicans attacking Sharia law is a tendril of white supremacy.Once again, El-Sayed crushed him.
“So getting rid of Sharia law is white supremacy?
Can you explain that one?” said Watters.
“Do you know what canon law is, Jesse?
I assume you’re Christian, right?” said El-Sayed.
“Yeah, tell me,” said Watters, who clearly had no idea what canon law is.
“All right, so canon law is the name for Christian law,” explained El-Sayed.
“I don’t begrudge you your right to practice your faith as you choose.I don’t know why the idea that I could practice my faith as I choose is a problem.Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else.Just like, I hope, nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of your religion.”
“So the idea that you have somebody like Tommy Tuberville, who barely was good at coaching football,” said El-Sayed, causing Watters to laugh at the ignorant MAGA senator’s expense, “is out here trying to ban Sharia law when there’s less than 1% of the Muslim community in America, as if somehow Muslims are out here trying to push Sharia law, that seems to me to be deliberately targeting the Muslim community because they’re different.”
“And I’m just saying that I have no issue with people practicing their faith,” El-Sayed said.
“In fact, I would never want somebody to push their faith on me, and I would never want to push my faith on somebody else.”
“Good, because no one wants you to get rid of your religion.
No one wants that,” said Watters, who is part of a political party that absolutely wants to get rid of Islam.
“But when people preemptively go out there and start preemptively passing laws to ban something that’s not happening, what you’re trying to do is target a very small community because they’re different, and this operates.
I mean, look, I’m just going to say there’s statistical evidence that the President and the Vice President want to target me simply as a function of my faith,” said El-Sayed.
We have to just stop and applaud El-Sayed for this particular point.
This man went on Fox News — the most Islamophobic network in the entire country — and proudly defended his Muslim faith.That takes serious courage.And he wasn’t done there…
At one point, El-Sayed referred to his MAGA opponent in the Michigan Senate race as a “beta,” causing Watters to laugh once again.
This guy is so damn charming, even a Fox News hack like Jesse Watters isn’t immune.
Predictably, Watters eventually tried to turn the conversation to the topic of transgender athletes.
When he did, El-Sayed gave one of the best responses we’ve ever seen to the bad faith talking point.
“Again like Jesse you have not asked me one time about the issues that people actually care about in Michigan,” said El-Sayed.
“You don’t want to talk about gas prices.”
“You don’t want to talk about groceries.”
“You don’t want to talk about healthcare.”
“You don’t want to talk about this stupid trade war that’s about to destroy Michigan’s economy.”
“You don’t want to talk about the actual war that’s destroying our military.”
“You don’t seem to want to talk about any of those things.
You want to bring up all this culture war that you know I’m not here to fight a culture war,” he added.
Watters sputtered a response and whined that it was his interview so he got to choose the questions.
He then asked a question about trans athletes.El-Sayed refused to take the bait.
“I’m running for U.S Senate and in Michigan, as the next U.S.
senator in Michigan, I’m interested in getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, and passing Medicare for All,” said El-Sayed.
Watters refused to drop it, and kept driving for a sports-related soundbite.
“At the end of the day, the choice of who plays which sports should be made by the people in charge of sports,” said El-Sayed.”I’m running for U.S.Senate!” “Jesse, it’s crazy, I’m out here fighting the healthcare crisis and Big Pharma, and you’re asking me about who gets to play what sports?”
“I don’t know.
It’s a big deal if you’ve been watching the news lately, Abdul,” said a worried Watters.
Towards the end of the interview, Watters called El-Sayed “naive” and said some Democratic ideas are “wacky.” Once again, El-Sayed had the perfect reply.
“You know what’s really wacky?” said El-Sayed.
“Can I just tell you what you didn’t ask me about?We have a President who cares more about the drapes in a ballroom that shouldn’t even be built than he cares about the war he just got us into, or about the affordability crisis.
“That seems pretty wacky to me.
If we want to have a real talk about what Michiganders are going through, I’d love to come back and discuss getting money out of politics, putting money in your pockets, and passing Medicare for All.I’m telling you, none of that is wacky, and that’s what Michiganders want.”
“We’ll do it again, Abdul,” said Watters.
“It was a great conversation.
Thank you so much,” said El-Sayed.
That’s how it’s done, ladies and gentlemen.
Dr.Abdul El-Sayed is going to be one hell of a senator.
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