Michigan’s U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) hit back at a conservative interviewer’s question about parents disagreeing with what their children learn in school — and the MAGA movement is taking offense to his answer as seen in an edited clip.
In El-Sayed’s recent appearance on “60 Minutes,” Ross Douthat asked about “tension” between Muslim voters and what’s “taught in school,” specifically as it pertains to “what happens with transgender kids on sports teams.”
That’s around the time an edited clip — which was initially shared by El-Sayed’s opponent, Mike Rogers (R), and has since taken off among right-wing social media circles — begins.
“Like these are places where rights are in conflict, right? What do you think happens there?” asked Douthat of El-Sayed, who could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
El-Sayed — who emphasized the importance of people standing up for each others’ rights moments earlier — took issue with Douthat’s line of questioning.
He rejected the notion that parents can prevent their kids from being exposed to things they “may find disagreeable” or that schools are to blame for it, calling it a “profoundly outdated” idea in the social media age.
“The most important thing you can do is not try to protect a person from seeing a thing,” he said.
“It’s about trying to make sure that as you coach your kid through the world, that you are engaging with them and saying, ‘Here’s what I believe, here’s what you may see in the world, you get to make your choices about who you’re going to be in the world.’”
Rogers’ clip curiously ends just before El-Sayed suggests Republicans have tried to turn “culture war” issues into a “cultural flash point” to distract from “real issues” like higher gas prices, the cost of groceries and healthcare.
He made a similar point on Fox News in August.
The clip — which Vanity Fair’s Aidan McLaughlin described as “totally out of context” — sparked an eruption of noise from right-wingers who latched onto the “trans” part of Douthat’s question, including President Donald Trump, who shared the clip along with a screenshot of Rogers’ caption to Truth Social.
“.@AbdulElSayed says it’s ok for MEN to be in girl’s locker rooms. Why? ‘Well because they are going to find out about it on the internet anyway,’” Rogers wrote alongside the clip on X. “Completely unacceptable.”
“Abdul El Sayed has lost his fucking mind,” wrote Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who once went on a crusade trying to ban trans women from using the women’s bathroom on Capitol Hill.
And Riley Gaines — former collegiate swimmer-turned-anti-trans rights militant — slammed El-Sayed after the context-stripped clip aired on Fox News.