Jesse Watters invited Abdul El-Sayed onto his Fox News show Monday night for an in-depth, 25-minute interview that saw both men laugh off the other’s points of view even at their more contentious moments.
A majority of their “Jesse Watters Primetime” conversation centered on hot-button topics such as ICE, the Green New Deal, the Second Amendment, transgender athletes in sports, President Trump’s War in Iran and rising gas prices, as well as El-Sayed’s Republican opposition for Michigan senate, Mike Rogers. However, Watters questioned whether his guest truly understood where the country currently stands economically despite his talking points.
“Everywhere I go in Michigan, people are talking about the fact that they’ve never had to worry as much about life being as unaffordable as they say right now,” El-Sayed said. “I get it, Donald Trump likes to blame everything on his predecessor, but let’s be clear: This is Donald Trump’s economy right now — and he’s about to make everything so much worse because he’s in a vanity war with the Prime Minister of Canada.”
“I have a feeling, Abdul, you don’t even know how much money the government spends every year,” the host further asserted. “It’s $7 trillion a year, and your plan to take over the healthcare system is $4 trillion.”
“I just don’t see why you’re so on the side of the billionaires,” El-Sayed eventually replied, before referencing Pete Hegseth’s tenure at the network. “You want to talk about budgets, I’m happy to do that. The guy who used to work on your channel — I think he was like the sixth host on ‘The Five’ — he wanted to raise our military budget to $1.5 trillion, and you don’t seem to be upset about that. What? So we could fight a war we don’t know how to get out of? To raise our gas prices $5 a gallon? That doesn’t make sense to me, Jesse.”
Elsewhere in their interview, Watters asked the epidemiologist-turned- progressive politician about his stance on sex changes for minors and if he was OK with a hypothetical parent who wanted to “slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off.”
“I mean, so, do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised?” El-Sayed responded, while Watters answered: “Yeah, but I mean, that’s a personal question, doctor … circumcision’s different than castration.”
“I just think it’s a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient. I’m just saying that, yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling, so if you really want to bring that up, you can. I just think you guys are really selective about how you want to talk about these things,” El-Sayed added (without advocating for it), as Watters noted: “That’s wacky, Abdul. Michigan’s not going for that; that is sick stuff.”
Ultimately, the unlikely pair ended their performance with smiles — and a shaky invitation to return for another chat in the future.
“I respect the fact that you came on. I don’t think you’ve really looked into some of the policies you’re pushing. You seem a little naive, Abdul,” Watters said. “I give you credit for facing the music, but some of this stuff’s just straight-up wacky. You know? I don’t know if that’s going to fly in Michigan, but we’re going to find out.”
“You know what’s wacky, though?” El-Sayed concluded. “We got a president of the United States who cares more about the drapes in a ballroom that shouldn’t be built than he cares about the war he just got us into or than he cares about the affordability crisis. That seems to me to be a little bit wacky. So, if we want to have a serious conversation about what Michiganders are feeling, I’d love to come back on and talk about getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, passing Medicare for All … ’cause I’ll tell you, none of that is wacky and that’s what Michiganders want.”
