Following his Michigan Senate primary win, Republicans launched attack ads against Abdul El-Sayed. The ad opens with a narrator branding him "the most radical Senate candidate in America," shows him standing alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker - who once said Americans deserved 9/11 - and cuts to El-Sayed declaring himself "pretty damn dangerous." But Democrats and the liberal media are focusing on the fact that the ad uses his full name, "Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed," and accusing the ad of being Islamophobic.
Debate over the ad got heated on CNN's NewsNight after guest host John Berman opened the segment with a clip of CNN's Manu Raju pressing Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on the ad.
Raju asked Scott whether the full-name treatment was meant to signal to voters that El-Sayed is Muslim. Scott denied it. "Not at all," he said. "He says he's the most dangerous candidate you can find. He's right. We should trust his words, not ours." Pressed again on why the ad would not simply use the name El-Sayed goes by, Scott reached for a comparison to his own name. "I go by Timothy Eugene, and so I get called that all the time," he said. "It's about what he stands for."
"And we're going to focus and bring attention to the fact that not only is he sympathetic for Hamas, not only does he run around with Hasan Piker - someone who said that Americans deserved 9/11 - he should be held account for exactly where he stands and what he's for," Scott added.
Berman was not buying it. "I have never heard Tim Scott referred to as Timothy Eugene in a campaign ad," he said, setting up a panel that spent the next several minutes proving his point in the worst possible way.
El-Sayed himself has not shied away from his whole name. After the NRSC press release, he told his opponent: "If you can't say the name Abdulrahman, keep the name out of your damn mouth! I'll be happy to give you lessons!"
Niall Stanage, an Irish journalist and White House columnist at The Hill, dismissed Scott's comparison as absurd. "The idea that using Tim Scott's full name, unabbreviated, is equivalent to using Abdul El-Sayed's full name is just ludicrous," he said. "It is obviously in El-Sayed's case an appeal to anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment."
But conservative radio host Jason Rantz wasn't buying the idea that El-Sayed's Islamic faith was some kind of secret. "People didn't know he was Muslim until they said his full name," he said sarcastically.
Stanage eventually pivoted to the Biden administration's record, accusing it of "forfeiting concerns for human rights, all the while shoveling weapons to Mr. Netanyahu with which to kill 70,000 Palestinians." That is when the segment stopped being about a Senate race.
"But it always goes back to the Jews, like every single time," Rantz said. "Which is a perfect example of like some of what you're talking about, like the coded language and whatnot. El-Sayed has brought up AIPAC, and brings it up absolutely every single time he can, because he wants to talk about the Jews."
Stanage rejected the framing. According to him, AIPAC draws criticism "because they support the most right-wing government in Israel's history." Jesse Arm, executive director of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, mocked Stanage by saying, "we understand that Ireland cares a lot about Palestine." Stanage swung back. "Because we don't like people militarily subjugating and occupying people!" he said.
Berman stepped in and gave each panelist ten seconds to land a point before the crosstalk could swallow the segment again.
"People in Michigan are actually scared of Abdul El-Sayed, not because of Israel or whatever. No one cares about Israel. He's going to rip away Obamacare," Arm argued. "He's going to rip away private health insurance from the 66 percent of Americans who have it." He also pointed to Rep. Rashida Tlaib's primary attacks on Stevens over her support from General Mills and General Motors, calling it the kind of anti-business politics Michigan voters tend to punish.
Stanage argued that those attacks are a distraction from an economic message that has polled well for years, anchored in Medicare for All and reducing money in politics, an idea with appeal across the ideological spectrum. "That combination," he said, "is why he won."
Rantz then proved him wrong, pointing out that El-Sayed won the primary "by the skin of his teeth" after once leading Stevens by 10 to 13 points, and Rantz claimed Democrats are conceding behind closed doors that he will lose the general election. This would sink their chances of retaking the Senate.