After Joe Scarborough's Monday rant over the influence of far-left streamer Hasan Piker in the Michigan Senate race, Tuesday’s Morning Joe was outraged by President Trump’s use of the term “jihadist” to describe the rise of DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries. Scarborough specifically said the label specifically referred to Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Mika Brzezinski led with the story and read, “President Trump is escalating his attacks against progressive Democratic candidates, now using rhetoric to baselessly describe his party's opponents… as violent extremist militants."
After a soundbite played from Trump’s Monday comments from the Oval Office, Brzezinski then said, “He’s not specifying exactly which candidate he’s referring to,” before Scarborough remarked, ”But we know which candidate he's referring to.”
After Monday’s Hasan Piker freakout, Tuesday’s Morning Joe was outraged over President Trump calling far-left Democratic candidates “jihadists.” Joe Scarborough said it was clear Trump was referring to Abdul El-Sayed.
Scarborough then returned to an old point of his and said the… pic.twitter.com/1PMpfYc1iB— Nick (@nspin310) August 11, 2026
Scarborough then returned to an old point of his and said the “rising socialist threat” comes from the White House: "And don't even get me started on the communism thing. There is a socialist threat in America right now. A rising socialist threat."
Brzezinski remarked that El-Sayed was “ready for prime time” before Scarborough finally returned to Monday’s El-Sayed and Piker talk, which he called “a conversation yesterday about some of the challenges he is going to be facing.”
Scarborough added that El-Sayed “barely won that primary” and would have to bring “different parts of Michigan together.” But, he also said, “But as far as political skills go, he's a very talented guy.”
Later in the show, Willie Geist said Republicans were trying to use El-Sayed’s full name to make him an “other.” He also said they are making El-Sayed a “straw man.”
Jonathan Lemire expanded and said the label of “jihadist” plus the “war right now with a Middle Eastern Muslim… https://t.co/OROg6SG1K8 pic.twitter.com/BrmoR8iX3s— Nick (@nspin310) August 11, 2026
Later in the show, hosts Willie Geist and Jonathan Lemire continued the outrage over the use of “jihadist” by Trump. Geist called it “ugly rhetoric” and said the use of El-Sayed's full name was to try to make him an “other.”
Geist then said, “We disagree with a lot of what El-Sayed may say and believe in the rhetoric he’s used about certain things, including about Israel. But he grew up in the suburbs of Detroit playing lacrosse and football and went to the University of Michigan. So, the idea that he's some un-American other just doesn't hold up. But the president and his allies like him as sort of this straw man that they can go after and make representative of the Democratic Party.”
Lemire connected the discussion to the War with Iran, which he called a “war right now with a Muslim Middle Eastern Country” before he connected both to the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and said, “There are some who are concerned there might be an upswing in anti-Muslim sentiment here in the United States, and here's the president feeding into that.”
Lemire concluded: “So therefore, it's this kind of culture war, identity, frankly, racist, you know, offensive attacks - because there's nothing else in their arsenal. So, they're reduced to this, you know, in order to try to score some points against Democratic candidates.”
Putting aside Lemire’s comments, a possible easy way for a candidate to avoid being associated with or called a jihadist would be not to campaign with figures sympathetic to Hamas, like Hasan Piker, who, for just one example, has played Houthi terrorist propaganda to viewers and called it a “music video.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
August 11, 2026
7:14:32 AM Eastern
(...)
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: President Trump is escalating his attacks against Progressive Democratic candidates. Now using rhetoric to baselessly describe his party's opponents -
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What a surprise.
BRZEZINSKI: - as violent extremist militants.
(...)
7:14:55 AM Eastern
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, the one thing is we have jihadists being elected all over the place. We have this - whether it's communism, jihadism. It's a lot - A friend of mine called up. He said, you know, really you should use the word jihadist because that's what's happening.
[Cuts back to live]
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. I, uh -
BRZEZINSKI: Okay?
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, it’s not happening. I mean, if you're saying because somebody is Muslim there a jihadist?
That kind of goes back to -
BRZEZINSKI: He’s not specifying exactly which candidate he’s referring to.
SCARBOROUGH: But we know which candidate he's referring to.
BRZEZINSKI: I know.
SCARBOROUGH: It's about El-Sayed, the winner of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. But, you know, you go back to - this is very typical. You go back to December of 2015, Donald Trump was talking about a Muslim registry.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: And at the time we said this is what Germany looked like in 1933, 1934. And this is he's had this ongoing thing where, again, he'll tell Muslim members of Congress, ‘go back to where you came from.’ He'll call people jihadists.
And don't even get me started on the communism thing. There is a socialist threat in America right now. A rising socialist threat.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: And the call is coming from inside the White House. The same Trump White House that's taken over parts of 30 private companies. This is what pre-Thatcher Britain looked like. And it's Donald Trump that's socializing, nationalizing American companies. Anyway.
BRZEZINSKI: Look at what he posted. Over the weekend, Trump posted on Truth Social an image of himself with the first lady next to an image of El-Sayed and his wife with the text reading “two very different Americas.” The White House's official social media pages echoed that message, characterizing El-Sayed as a direct threat to America and the very values that define our nation.
By the way, that candidate has great clapbacks to Donald Trump if you go to him with what Trump has said. He is ready, ready for prime time.
SCARBOROUGH: It's very interesting. We had a conversation yesterday about some of the challenges that he's going to be facing.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: You know, 13-14 percent of Michigan people came out to vote in the primary, and he barely won that primary. He does have to bring up a lot of different parties together, different parts of Michigan together.
But as far as political skills go, he's a very talented guy. And I must say, when Donald Trump calls him a jihadist.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Which is - who else would he be talking about? You know, I think all he's doing is driving, Donald Trump, a lot of independent voters toward El-Sayed. I think he also is making life a lot more difficult for Muslim Americans, who are, Mr. President, Americans.
(...)
7:22:42 AM Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: John, there's so much ugly rhetoric that comes out immediately. Barack Hussein Obama, he always makes a point, the president, using the middle name of the former president. He's using Abdul El-Sayed’s full name to make some similar point, that he's other, that he's not one of us, that he's a, quote, “jihadist” perhaps. We assume that's who he's talking about.
By the way, we disagree with a lot of what El-Sayed may say and believe in the rhetoric he's used about certain things, including about Israel. But he grew up in the suburbs of Detroit playing lacrosse and football and went to the University of Michigan. So, the idea that he's some un-American other just doesn't hold up. But the president and his allies like him as sort of this straw man that they can go after and make representative of the Democratic Party.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: And he's been doing this for a decade. The Rev. is right. Or more so when the birtherism about President Obama, you know, here in this moment.
Also, there is some danger here. The context of this is we are at war right now with a Middle Eastern Muslim country. We also, of course, are about to hit the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. There are some who are concerned there might be an upswing in anti-muslim sentiment here in the United States, and here's the president feeding into that.
But to me also, it's just desperation. It's just like we're doing Red Scare one day. We're doing jihadists the next. They don't have a good story right now, the Republicans. They don't have accomplishments they can sell. They don't have anything they can go to the voters and say, you know, this is a record we can run on, Joe.
So therefore, it's this kind of culture war, identity, frankly, racist, you know, offensive attacks -
SCARBOROUGH: Yep.
LEMIRE: - because there's nothing else in their arsenal. So, they're reduced to this, you know, in order to try to score some points against Democratic candidates.
(...)
