It’s often said that what liberals claim about Republicans is them admitting to their own actions. That maxim was true during Tuesday’s The Moment when MS NOW host Katy Tur whined about how while Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D-MN) was "trying to stay on message with policy and ideas, there are a lot of pretty ugly attacks coming out against him." Meanwhile, she ignored El-Sayed’s attack on the Second Lady.
Leading into the topic of people speaking out against El-Sayed, Tur touted a previous appearance he had on her show and seemed to take great joy in the conversation and his far-left policies:
So interestingly, when I had Abdul El-Sayed on the program the other day and he was talking, as one does as they campaign, about how Congress is not working for the American public. And he says the big reason it's not working is because of lobbyists and corporate PAC money, PAC money in general, etc. And that's why he's not taking it. That's why he wants to try to get rid of it. And he wants to make the argument if he gets into Congress against it. And it's something you hear a lot.
“But while he's trying, is trying to stay on message with policy and ideas, there are a lot of pretty ugly attacks coming out against him,” she griped. “There are people who disagree with people he's campaigned with, but then there are the much bigger step further, much more extreme attacks.”
MS NOW whines that while Abdul El-Sayed is "trying to stay on message with policy and ideas, there are a lot of pretty ugly attacks coming out against him." She then plays a clip of J.D. Vance calling out El-Sayed for attacking his wife, but omits El-Sayed's attack:
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KATY… pic.twitter.com/8ZaCqdeCgy— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 1, 2026
Without any context, she played this soundbite of Vice President J.D. Vance putting El-Sayed on blast and calling out his policies of spreading hate and division:
There's something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today. And it's people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person, whether they're Jewish or Christian, whether they're white or black or brown, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others. And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America.
Immediately flowing the clip, Tur went to far-left Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha to have him dismiss the Vice President’s criticisms:
TUR: Chuck, what do you make of that?
ROCHA: As a strategist, this is what you say when gas is $4 a gallon and diesel in Michigan is $4.35, and farmers can't afford to put gas in their tractors. They're trying to distract.
What Tur and MS NOW were intentionally obfuscating from their viewers was the fact that Vance’s tone in the speech was in response to an attack El-Sayed had launched on his wife and marriage. It was the same speech Vance told El-Sayed to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
In a soundbite Tur wouldn’t dare share on the air, El-Sayed once proclaimed: “What do you think is going through Usha’s head when [J.D. Vance] talks? She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him. I guess she’s pregnant so something is happening.”
How is attacking the Vance marriage a “message” of “policy and ideas,” Katy? If someone attacked your husband personally, would you think it was about “ideas?”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Moment With Katy Tur
September 1, 2026
3:22:36 p.m. Eastern(…)
KATY TUR: So interestingly, when I had Abdul el-Sayed on the program the other day and he was talking, as one does as they campaign, about how Congress is not working for the American public. And he says the big reason it's not working is because of lobbyists and corporate PAC money, PAC money in general, etc. And that's why he's not taking it. That's why he wants to try to get rid of it. And he wants to make the argument if he gets into Congress against it. And it's something you hear a lot.
But while he's trying, is trying to stay on message with policy and ideas, there are a lot of pretty ugly attacks coming out against him. There are people who disagree with people he's campaigned with, but then there are the much bigger step further, much more extreme attacks. This one came from the Vice President. Let me play what he said yesterday about Abdul El-Sayed.
[Cuts to video]
VP J.D. VANCE: There's something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today. And it's people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person, whether they're Jewish or Christian, whether they're white or black or brown, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others. And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America.
[Cuts back to live]
TUR: Chuck, what do you make of that?
CHUCK ROCHA: As a strategist, this is what you say when gas is $4 a gallon and diesel in Michigan is $4.35, and farmers can't afford to put gas in their tractors. They're trying to distract. And it's a strategy. And as the strategist who've done this for a long time, that is a strategy. Maybe it works. It worked for Donald Trump, but it worked in a presidential year when Donald Trump brought a lot of new people with grievance in where he could be their retribution. A, he hasn't been their retribution. And things have gotten worse.
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