Journalists are often firmer with Democrats before they win a primary election. Then, when facing off against a Republican in the general, they go soft on the Democrat and rough on the Republican. That's already happening in the Michigan Senate race with Abdul el-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers.
It’s apparently racist for Republicans to say the name Abdulrahman Mohamed el-Sayed. But they put the whole name on screen when el-Sayed spoke at his college graduation in Ann Arbor. When conservatives said "Barack Hussein Obama," the left mostly freaked out about that, too.
Mehdi Hasan complained right out of the box: "his GOP opponent is already running ads featuring Osama bin Laden and 9/11. The Islamophobia over the next few months is gonna be vicious". Funny, we’re not seeing the clip where Piker breaks out in profanity and says the Democrats who did not vote for Abdul are Islamophobic pieces of [poop].
NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck and MRC Senior Director Eric Scheiner joined the show to assess the post-primary media environment. Suddenly, el-Sayed's interviews got softer.
On CBS Mornings, there were questions were inviting him to explain how he will “sway Haley Stevens supporters,” “[w]hat is your message to” “members of the Democratic establishment,” and if he’d support Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader. Duthiers framed as concerning the fact that Stevens “was obviously pro-Israel” whereas he was “very clear about pulling back the spending for countries like the state of Israel.” At least Vladimir Duthier suggested that was a "false choice, that foreign aid was a tiny part of the budget that wasn't going to hurt spending on schools.
On Morning Joe, co-host Willie Geist asked "Can you explain your position on foreign aid as it applies to Israel, but also more broadly?" Abdul expressed loathing of Israel regardless of its leader: "We’ve been talking about an illegal apartheid regime for a very, very long time, and that supersedes Netanyahu himself." Even if he insisted Netanyahu is “bloodthirsty.”
On CNN's The Source, host Kaitlan Collins played criticism from Sen. John Fetterman: "He said that you need to renounce people like the leftwing streamer Hasan Piker, who was campaigning with you, who was out there in Michigan on Monday night, I believe last night as well. Um, do you have any plans to do that? His answer was just wacky: "I'm less focused on folks who are campaigning with me, more focused on the folks I'm campaigning to."
After a notorious 2020 tweet saying Thanksgiving is imperialism and should be canceled, socialist Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Francesca Hong is now claiming it’s her favorite holiday. Try keeping up with her hot takes. She trashed Valentine's Day: "the worst of humanity comes out from folks 'celebrating' on another day capitalism tells you how to show love." She also hates Halloween. And she doesn’t like fireworks into the night on July 4.
Hong primary opponent David Crowley complained: “when people try to call me the establishment, I look at that as a slur, particularly as an African American candidate.”
We concluded with the Worst Media Quote of the Week contenders.
MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell adores Anthony Fauci: “And that led Rand Paul to turn his hearing room into the most disgraceful Stalinist tribunal the United States Senate has ever seen.”
Rosie O’Donnell performed an anti-Trump song parody: “His approval rate is 30. His diaper’s always dirty, I think the guy’s insane. He ain’t no stable genius. Got a teeny tiny penis and he doesn’t have a brain.”
Comedian D.L. Hughley found a Christlike politician: “This Muslim [Zohran Mamdani] is putting Christians to shame….There is more to say for a man that lifts the poor, that feeds the hungry, that employs the people who are unemployable, that walks among the people, than powerful white men who consort with a pedophile. Who’s the more Christlike?”
Enjoy the podcast below. The audio is here.
