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Hello, good morning everyone.

Where is Don?

It's 20 after, it's Hot Topics.

I will explain, but not until you hit the thumbs up.

And then I'll explain.

I don't know if you followed our journey last night.

Some of it was on Twitch, some of it on social media.

So we were, as you know, I was in Chicago, welcome.

I'm so glad, thank you for being here.

Thank you for waiting and being so patient.

So we were in Chicago yesterday and

I don't know if you guys know,

but there was a Northeastern here in the Northeast

and in New York, we were delayed

three, four hours.

And we were, they let everyone into the airport lounge.

And we sat there, I did my show from the airport lounge.

That's how long I was there.

We got there early.

Let me back up.

So we're driving to the airport

and then the traffic on, I think it was a Dan Ryan.

I forget whichever one, Ike, I forget, whatever.

You guys let me know in Chicago, whichever one goes to O'Hare.

And then that was delayed.

And so then the, my producers, the social media guy says,

okay, Don, we'll drop you off at the, you know, departures.

We'll drop you and Mike, the camera guy, Mike,

off at departures and then you guys can go in.

You guys can get in the lounge.

You can do the show, blah, blah, blah.

And we'll take the rental car back.

So, okay, cool.

Dropped me off.

I was, I dropped me off.

I went through the security line.

This guy was talking to me.

He's like, hey, oh my God, you're famous.

Whatever, can I get a picture?

I'm like, sure.

And then, so I was really distracted.

Luckily Mike was there and I go into my pocket

in my jacket to take everything out.

And the rental car key is in my jacket.

Has anybody ever had that happen?

So the rental car key was in my jacket and I was like,

Oh shit.

I said, Mike, help.

Can you, do you mind taking this out to the guys?

I'll call them.

Cause I thought the car had stopped on the side of the road.

Cause some of the cars, if you get too far away

from the key, it'll just die.

So luckily the car did not die.

They were driving to the rental car place and whatever.

So Mike went out and did it.

So that's how it started.

And then we kept getting delay after delay after delay.

We didn't leave Chicago until well after 10 o'clock.

I think I got home at like 2 AM and I get to bed until three.

So here I am.

That's my sob story.

That is my sob story.

So good morning everybody.

Hit the thumbs up, hit the like, subscribe,

all of that stuff.

You know, you've had one of those, right?

Yep. Welcome to Chicago.

Someone said, but it wasn't, it wasn't over here,

but it was a lounge.

So we ended up going out of the lounge.

Okay. So here's the thing on the road, you know,

you eat like crap.

I eat like crap on the road because it's just too many

temptations.

There's always some sort of fast food, pizza, something.

And then you order in and you, whatever from Uber eats or

seamless or you know, whatever the thing is,

whatever the delivery app is and Postmates, whatever.

Suppose to make it around.

I think it is.

And so I ate very badly as I was in Chicago or traveling

to Chicago.

And so we're going, they kick us out of the lounge.

We're the last people to leave, like literally the last

people leave.

And we get to the, there's a Burger King on the way.

And so we're like, let's go check to see if the plane is

here.

Plane was not there yet.

So we double back, go to Burger King.

Cause everybody in my group loves a Whopper.

So we get to the Burger King.

And as soon as we get there, the guy before me got the last

freaking Whopper.

What up universe karma?

You know how much I love a Whopper, especially a Whopper

Jr. Cause it just satisfies us.

And it's not, you don't get all the calories when you get

the taste.

I love a Whopper.

So Burger King help a brother out.

You guys call Burger King and tell him get, you know,

get with the program.

So I had to get like a spicy chicken sandwiches, which is

okay.

But I always, my thing is a Whopper Jr.

Cut it in half, get the onion rings with it.

Boom.

It's over.

It's great.

Not that fattening.

Anyway, I digress.

What am I doing?

I'm talking about what's happening in the world.

So thank you guys.

That was my evening.

I'm back now.

No sleep.

So I'm a little bit scattered, but I'm here.

So good morning, my friends.

Welcome to the Don Lemon show.

So here, this is what's happening.

Have you guys noticed that MAGA influencers and MAGA,

you know, the Manosphere podcasters, you know,

they are turning against Donald Trump.

They helped Donald Trump to win in 2024, but they,

they, I don't know if they helped him win, but they went a

long way in solidifying the president's support among large

swaths of young men who followed them 10 months into the

implementation of the president's agenda and the same

ultra popular figures, streamers, even some politicians.

It's not just the, the Manosphere it's MAGA influencers

and MAGA politicians.

They lent their audiences or their names to the president's

2024 efforts.

Now, they wanted him to scramble to break government, right?

Now they are turning against him.

They're turning against him because of this administration's

authoritarian approaches to immigration enforcement,

Gaza, the first amendment.

They have become real points of contention for many

content creators, previously considered reliable MAGA

liaisons just months ago, and not just content creators.

As I said, it is MAGA politicians as well.

Have you guys seen Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Marjorie Taylor Greene is woke.

There was someone, I think it was my friend, Ahmed Baba,

I'll play it a little bit later, who said,

I would think that that was like any sort of democratic

politician if I actually sat down and I didn't know who

Marjorie Taylor Greene was.

None of what Donald Trump has done since retaking office

should come as a shock to anyone.

He has been bowing to go after immigrants,

as well as his critics and his political opponents and not

only bowing to go after them, he has been going after them.

He has been prosecuting Comey, Letitia James,

which is his former national security advisor.

What's the guy's name with the beard?

I can't remember his name.

You know, the mustache.

That guy, you know who I'm talking about.

He's been going after them for years.

His plans for ruthless, relentless, mass deportations.

He said that he was going to do it.

Yes, John Bolton, thank you.

They were as explicit as his designation of migrants

as poison to the blood of our nation.

That's what he said.

It is really a shame that these people who helped to put him

back into office only seem to be realizing all of that now.

It's a real shame.

Now, I don't know if you can call this FAFO.

I'm not sure if you want to call it FAFO or whatever it is

that you want to call it.

But whatever it is, I think it's a real shame.

Because those are the folks who I want to talk to today.

I'm talking to you today, the audience,

but I'm also talking to them, the MAGA faithful,

the ones who still chant America first.

And then, but their movement, Donald Trump's movement

is being sold out from within by him.

Because right now what we're witnessing is it's not politics

as usual.

It's a slow, it's an ugly, it's an implosion.

The movement is imploding.

It's a movement that was always more fragile than it looked

because it was built on lies, right?

And they feel like it is a betrayal right now.

It's not a sudden one, but one that is years in the making

now, and it is happening really in broad daylight.

Example soon to come.

Remember like the Donald Trump and the MAGA folks

like they said to you, oh my gosh, we are the outsiders.

They told you that they were the outsiders, the revolution,

right, the new folks that were gonna change government

and change America.

They told you that they were here to save America

from the elites, but they turned out to be the elites.

They turned out to be the people

who were actually helping the elites,

who were helping the elites get richer

and pay fewer taxes.

But the moment as always though,

Republicans since the beginning of time,

the moment that power touches their hands,

they become the very thing that they swore

that they were gonna destroy and get rid of.

And now that same sort of betrayal is surfacing in public.

And then it's cracking and fissuring.

Is that a thing?

The very base that once crowned Donald Trump,

a political Messiah that made him a cult figure,

that made him the king that he thinks he is.

All over the right wing, voices that once shouted,

"Bill the wall, America first, drain the swamp,

"make America great," I'm muttering words now like liar,

sellout, grifter.

Even the PDF file word,

they are, are the PDF files as they say word.

They are demanding answers about everything

from the Epstein files to Medicare.

Like why is the government shutdown?

They're furious about the deals

that were made behind closed doors like,

the Qatar military training facility,

same people who once dismissed every criticism,

fake news, that's one of them.

Now they're all saying like,

they're not even really whispering it.

They're like, "This is not what I voted for."

Yeah, it is what you voted for.

And I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of like the broadcasters, the Manasphere folks,

the comedians, "I didn't vote for this.

"Man, what is he doing?

"He's turning me up like Theo Von you didn't know."

Schultz, Andrew Schultz, you didn't know, come on.

You guys knew.

And if you didn't know, damn, wow, really?

I think I thought that you were like fairly smart guys.

You didn't know that.

The thing that I am shocked, well, I shouldn't be

because some people are doing it.

I think Joe Rogan is doing it and some other folks,

but I'm shocked that more people,

especially Republicans are not up in arms,

screaming from the rooftops about due process,

about the government, like this is a military takeover.

It's a military state that we're living in.

Just yanking people off the streets.

They're not talking about the Fifth Amendment.

They're not talking about due process for all persons

and not just citizens.

They're nothing.

They're not talking about any of that.

They say, "This is not what I voted for."

Okay, maybe.

Maybe, I'm not so sure because the loyalty that they gave him

was never real loyalty.

It was either built on a grift.

It was built on illusions, on slogans, on rage.

It was a fantasy that one man could bend the arc of history

by sheer force or just ego.

I mean, he's pretty good at shape-shifting

and so are they, like Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Man, she is doing some shape-shifting right now.

It's pretty crazy.

But here's the truth, like if you wanna know about cults,

because I've been around a long time.

I was a person who was of sound mind.

I mean, I wasn't just a child when Jim Jones was around.

So I know about cults.

And I mean, if you wanna call David Koresh,

whatever you wanna call, I know about cults.

It always ends this way.

The person who is a prophet or the dear leader

becomes the tyrant, right, drink.

Then they tell you, they make you start doing things.

You're like, why am I doing this?

You start to question it.

Then the savior becomes the scammer, the scammer.

And the ordinary people who believe

they are left holding the bill

if they are even left around at all.

So we've seen all of this in history before.

We saw it when the silent majority rose up

in the Nixon years, only to watch their champion resign

in disgrace.

We saw it when Reagan preached small government

and then ballooning.

Remember Reagan preached small government

and then he ballooned the state.

And then he sold weapons under the table.

And then we saw it when George W. Bush and a generation,

quite frankly, of folks to die in a war built on lies.

Each and every time they said

that they were fighting for America.

And each time they betrayed the very people

that they claim to serve.

This is just the latest chapter in a very old book.

So instead of an old book,

what we need more than anything

is a new breed of politician.

Some folks say that that's happening in New York

with the mayoral race.

Some folks say it's happening all across America

with a new breed of Democrats now coming into office.

There's someone in Michigan

that we're gonna introduce you to.

He's a physician, he's epidemiologist and an author.

And he also happens to be running

for the open Senate seat in the great state of Michigan.

And his name is Dr. Abdul Al-Sayed.

Now I wanna show him to you now,

Dr. welcome to the program, good to see you.

It is a privilege to be with you.

And I'm sorry for the janky situation, my computer died.

And so we're doing this by phone, but it's 2025.

So here we are. Here's the thing.

Don't even worry about it because I've had one of those,

oh, nice black t-shirts, so I'm glad we're matching.

So here's the thing, I have just told my audience

how I was stuck in the airport

and we were the last ones in the lounge

and I got home at 2 a.m.

So I'm a little disheveled, don't even worry about it.

The folks here will love you.

But I wanna show folks who you are

before I introduce you personally,

I wanna show the ad and then I'm gonna get a two minute break

so we can get a word from our sponsors.

But this is how he is introducing himself

and his campaign to the folks in Michigan.

Here it is.

This is the American dream.

Regular people stacking together a life,

housing, good education, healthcare,

a job that pays a living wage.

But right now, Trump's terrible economy

is driving inflation from everything from housing

to healthcare to food.

And all of it goes back to one thing, greed.

While you're struggling to build the basics,

billionaires and corporate CEOs,

they're stacking and rigging the rules

to build theirs ever higher.

Look, nobody needs a hundred billion dollars,

just like nobody needs a 12 stack cheeseburger.

It's not even like you could even enjoy it.

Oh my gosh.

It's not possible.

And this is the point.

Why you need all that money?

It's like it's painful to try and consume it all.

You literally can't, you don't have the time.

Yeah, man, I'm not gonna be able to do it.

Yeah, I'm done.

Thank you.

Tapped out at 8.59.

(laughing)

I'm running for US Senate because I am sick of the greed.

I'm sick of the oligarchs and the billionaires

who gorge themselves while the Michiganers go hungry.

But right now, I'm just kind of sick.

(laughing)

Okay, so we're gonna find out.

Did he, how much did he eat?

Did he really eat all of that?

He could probably use one of our sponsors, Lean,

after eating all that meal.

And also, I have to, look,

I'm gonna disagree with you on something,

but first, a word from our sponsors

and then we're back, we're gonna talk to the doctor.

The Downloadment Show is brought to you by my friends

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Your mental health is very important.

And thank you so much to our sponsors.

Back now with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a physician,

he's an epidemiologist and the author and author

and he also happens to be running for an open Senate seat

in the great state of state.

And I'll talk about exactly who his opponents are

and whatever, but I gotta tell you, so number one,

did you eat that whole burger and fries yourself

or almost all of it?

I couldn't.

So it was a 12-stack cheeseburger.

I ended up finishing about seven of the burgers.

Suffice it to say, I have not had a burger since.

And then the challenge is this incredible burger spot

called Hamburger Mikey and Muskegon.

You eat the whole 12-stack burger and then a shake and fries

and you do it in 11 minutes.

And so you heard me clock out there at 8.50.

I barely got through seven of the burgers

and I couldn't touch the shake.

I had maybe five fries.

I don't know how people actually do this.

It's just, it's humanly impossible.

But that was kind of the point we were trying to make

which is what do you even do with a billion bucks?

And folks are jealously guarding their billions

to make yet more billions and you've got folks

who can't even put together a decent single-stack burger.

So what I was gonna say that I disagree with you on,

I mean, I don't really.

Is that you said you don't need $100 billion.

I mean, I would, but I would give all of it away.

And I would give it to help folks.

So who really needs that?

Look, after, we don't need as much as we think we do,

even if we're not rich, right?

That's right.

And Don, I bet you, like, if you had that much money,

you wouldn't mind if the federal government said,

you know what, we're gonna put over a 3% tax

so that we can pay for the public schools

and the universities and the hospitals

that help you along the way, right?

That are there so that the next person

can make their millions.

And that's the point, right?

It's not that we wanna begrudge them.

They're a whole billion bucks.

It's that a little bit of extra tax

to help to redistribute, to create the kind of society

that we all wanna live in,

to empower people to have opportunities

that otherwise they might not have, that's not that bad.

Well, I think that's very important for everyone,

but especially the immigrants who've come to America

and made so much money,

I think they should be more grateful

and they should be thankful for the opportunity

that they live in a country,

that we all live in a country,

whether we are native born or not,

that we all, or we're immigrants or not,

that we all live in a country

that affords us the opportunity

to become a millionaire or a billionaire

and to help other people.

We have enough resources to go around.

It's just that we have to start changing our thinking

about how we allocate that money.

So look, no, I'm not nearly a billionaire.

I am, I do have a certain privilege financially.

I've never really complained.

I may go, oh my God, this tax check is killing me.

I can't believe I have to write this, whatever.

But that's just, we all do that.

But at the end of the day,

I don't mind paying more taxes if I'm making more money,

especially when I live in a city and I walk by people,

I see that living on the streets

and who I know deserve a better life than that.

And I know that Republicans have cut the funding

for the facilities that put those people out on the streets.

So it's all in really how we think about it,

frame it in our mindset and helping others

and how we reallocate wealth in this country.

It's also the notion that if you're a billionaire,

you're probably making that money

in some sort of enterprise

that requires functional infrastructure,

that requires people to have good education

so that they can be employed in your company,

that requires them to have healthcare should they get sick.

Like we work in a world with other people.

And I think there are some folks

who just wanna deny that fact,

that we rely on each other and we're all better off

when we're all better off.

And that there's a little bit that folks

who make that extra bit ought to be able to pay

back into a system because they benefit the most

from that system.

And that's the thing about it is that

I would rather live in a world

where those folks can help to re-empower everyone else.

Like I'd love to see a bit of a billionaire tax

go back into a revolving small business support

in grant fund, right?

So that you can have somebody have the opportunity

to build their business and their next opportunity

because that's the thing about it

is it's recognizing that you didn't do it on your own.

We all did it together.

And for those folks with that ingenuity

and that ability to build a great business, fantastic.

And then let's make sure that the system keeps working,

not that you get there

and then you pull the ladder up for everybody else.

Yeah, we're speaking, by the way guys,

a great engagement this morning.

For some reason the audience is here for Dr. El Sayed,

but so I don't know, maybe it's a black T-shirt,

maybe it's just that he's so handsome,

maybe it's that he can eat like a bunch of hamburgers

or cheeseburgers, but let me just tell you who he is.

We're talking about, he's running in Michigan for Senate.

And so he is a, as I said, a physician, an epidemiologist,

he's an author as well,

but he has two democratic opponents in the primary,

Haley Stevens, who is reportedly backed by Chuck Schumer

and Senate Democrats and Mallory McMorrow,

the trios neck and neck in most of the polls.

So whichever Democrat is victorious,

correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. El Sayed,

whoever's victorious in their primary,

they're gonna face a competition,

stiff competition in former Congressman Mike Rogers

who lost his last US Senate race

against Alyssa Sloccan in 2024,

fewer than 20,000 votes.

That's exactly right.

And Mike Rogers is a historically bad candidate for Senate.

I mean, he underperformed Donald Trump

by more than Alyssa Sloccan underperformed Kamala Harris.

So when he failed to get across the finish line

when Donald Trump was on the ballot,

imagine what happens in 2026

when everybody finally has the opportunity

to go to the ballot box and tell Donald Trump

what they really think about he and his party.

Imagine what that's gonna mean for Mike Rogers.

This is also a guy, he voted while he was in Congress

to raise prescription drug prices 60 times.

And then when he retired from Congress,

he went to go work as a pharmaceutical lobbyist

and then moved to Florida.

Like you can't make this stuff up

and who better to prosecute that case

than a guy with two doctorates

who rebuilt Detroit's health department,

led Wayne County's health department,

helped to eliminate upwards of $700 million

of medical debt for 300,000 people,

put glasses on kids' faces,

and made sure that corporate polluters

weren't poisoning their kids' lungs.

So I would love to have the opportunity

to go blow for blow with somebody like Mike Rogers

and demonstrate that these people are beatable,

their ideology is defunct,

and that we have an opportunity

to beat them with something better.

And the question is whether or not

we're willing to play to win

or we wanna keep playing not to lose,

which I think at some point,

if you keep playing not to lose, you lose.

Oh, look, before you came on,

I was telling my audience about how the,

many in the magosphere,

including politicians and streamers and influencers

are now turning against Donald Trump.

They're saying, "Wait a minute,

this is not what I voted for."

They said that they were the outsiders.

And I said, the moment that power touches their hands,

they start regressing on everything that they promised.

And it shows me that their core beliefs aren't really true,

what they care about is money

and what they care about is power.

And so this whole idea about being an outsider,

I'm wondering if you feel like the outsider right now,

especially considering this ad that you ran

that you made fun of your name,

kind of like, you know, Barack Hussein Obama style,

here it is.

An all American story,

public schools, high school football captain,

scooped ice cream, loved his Camaro,

lacrosse at U of M,

an academic scholarship to med school,

Michigan values and a life of service to Michigan.

His name, Abdul El Sayed.

I know, I know, it's a name built for American politics.

My name is Abdul El Sayed.

I'm running for US Senate

because in the state that built the American dream,

it shouldn't be this hard just to get by.

To pay our bills or afford our groceries

or see our doctors or get our politicians in DC

and give a damn about us.

Michigan made my dreams possible.

I grew up all American here,

became a doctor to help people

and spent my career making government deliver for us.

I took on politicians

and rebuilt Detroit's health department,

got glasses for thousands of kids,

helped young moms and took on corporate polluters

and led in our schools.

Then I ran the state's largest health department

where we built big things, model programs

for veteran services and to protect our kids.

Abdul El Sayed named public official of the year.

Chances of medical debt for thousands of Michiganders.

And yeah, I'm a bro with a podcast.

To dig into the epidemics America's facing

of economic and health insecurity

and the political system that holds us back.

Here in Michigan, anything should be possible.

We need a little bit more of that Michigan grit

and values in Washington.

We've got to fight back hard against Trump and Musk

with a hell of a lot more than paper paddles

and broken promises.

They're not the disease, they're just the worst symptom.

The disease is the corruption of our politics

by billionaires and corporations.

While the workers who built this country are forgotten.

They've left us with trade deals

that have rotted out our towns

and robbed our children of their dreams.

Students are being snatched off the streets

while our democracy crumbles

and the politicians don't do anything.

That's what's un-American.

Here in Michigan, we build.

So let's build a bold vision of a government

that works for all of us, for healthcare, housing,

an economy that includes all of us.

My name might be different,

but our fight is one and the same

and it's as American as it gets.

I'm Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and I'm running for US Senate.

Let's go.

Let me just say, you know why?

Look, I don't vote in Michigan, okay?

But a couple of things.

You said that you're the podcast bro, right?

Which is relatable to a lot of people.

I don't know if you saw the ad

that more people get their information from podcasts now.

Advertising is up 98%, almost 100%,

because people relate to what we do in these spaces.

They feel that they can trust us.

Number two, you're reaching out to the people,

I believe that the Democratic Party has lost over the years

and that is the working class,

people who really care about their jobs,

putting food on their table and getting health insurance,

being able to take care of their families.

And Democrats kind of got off in some other issues.

We don't have to go there.

And I think it's also, you're extremely relatable.

I know that you probably don't like this comparison,

but I'm sure you've heard comparisons about mom Donnie

here in New York City, the young relatable candidates.

So do you feel like an outsider

and do you think this is a new lane

that Democrats, not so new,

but kind of going back to their roots with new faces?

Yeah, well, I really appreciate that question.

Let's just start with Trump for a second,

because this is a guy who's never been an outsider.

I mean, he's been an outsider by his own making.

His dad left him a loan of millions of dollars.

I don't know about you,

but my dad didn't give me a loan of millions of dollars.

Like what we earned, we had to earn.

And I was raised by my father, an Egyptian immigrant,

and then my stepmom, Jackie,

who's the daughter of the revolution

from the middle of the state of Michigan,

who comes from farming folk.

And so, when you look like me, you got a name like mine,

you start to realize that, first of all,

the notion that there are a group of people

who control the keys and lock out everyone else,

you start to see very quickly.

But then second, you start to rethink what it is

that leaves us locked out.

Those folks who have been locking us out

for a very long time,

they rely on our division to keep us locked out.

And I have this experience of being shipped off to Egypt,

where my dad immigrated from,

and spending my time with my illiterate grandmother,

and then coming back in the middle of the summer

to my grandmother, who's a nurse

who trained at Hurley Hospital in Flint.

And when you have to explain one of your grandmas

to the other grandma,

but then you realize that when they kiss you on the forehead

and they make your favorite meal, that it's that same love,

you start to realize that the things that make us different

are so much smaller than the things that bring us together.

And if we can come together around the things that we need,

basic healthcare for our kids,

a job that pays a good wage

that isn't gonna kick us out tomorrow,

the ability to afford a meal for our children,

the ability to know that that home

that you've spent so hard, so much time to afford,

it's gonna be there for you a week from now,

a year from now, that when we can connect on those things

that we can actually unlock the system

from folks like Donald Trump.

And that's what we're building a movement to do.

And so I think you're right that that notion

that the real divide in our politics

isn't left versus right,

but the folks who've been locked out

and the people who are locking them out

by dividing us from each other

and telling us that we don't need the same things,

I think that's the real critical piece.

And so we're trying to build a coalition of the folks

who have been locked out

to unlock the system for all of us.

Yeah, listen, I know that we have you

for a certain amount of time,

but I just, we're a little bit late,

so if you will please indulge me,

I have to ask you about Gaza.

I don't know if you saw what I said yesterday

regarding this peace deal,

it hasn't come to full fruition yet.

I think what we need to see is what's in it

for the people of Gaza, what's next,

the rebuilding,

because if it's heavily weighted towards Israel

and the folks in Gaza don't get what they should

fairly get out of it, which is rebuilding,

which is respect, which is autonomy

and a bunch of other things,

and is it really a peace deal?

So I'm wondering what your constituents make of this Gaza,

so-called, not so-called, pardon me, so far, ceasefire.

I hope that it holds,

but I do hope that Palestinian people

and the people in Gaza actually get what they deserve.

Michigan has a huge population of Muslim

and Arab Americans, and I'm just wondering

what you and your constituents think.

Yeah, at first, I'm happy to stay

as long as you'll have me.

I'm sorry for being late.

My computer is dead, forgive me.

I wanna say three things about this.

The first is we always pray for peace,

and the ending of a genocide,

the return home of hostages on either side

is an unalloyed good.

This is a moment for celebration and a sigh of relief.

And yet, the second point is that

you cannot have peace, true lasting peace, without justice.

And this so-called deal puts too much power

in the hands of the people who just perpetrated a genocide.

And the notion that we would continue

to shade somebody like Benjamin Netanyahu,

folks like Itamar Ben Gavir and Basilos Motrich

from accountability before the institutions

of international law is a foundational problem.

And I think we as a country have to come to grips

with where our tax dollars have been spent,

$22 billion spent to subsidize a genocide.

And that's the third part.

I'm not running for Senate from Tel Aviv

and not running for Senate from Gaza.

I'm running for Senator from Michigan.

And here in Michigan, I can travel all over our state

and I can see kids who are starving.

I can look at schools that are crumbling.

I can see healthcare systems

that are struggling and shutting down.

And the notion that we continue to send our money

to foreign militaries, and it's not just Israel,

it's Egypt, it is Saudi Arabia, it's Pakistan,

instead of investing in our kids here at home

is a foundational problem.

So somebody who is running for Senate from Michigan

should want to make sure that Michigan tax dollars

are well spent and that they're spent here in Michigan.

And the notion that for two years and far longer than that,

we have been subsidizing a genocide.

And before that, a brutal occupation and siege

rather than investing in problems here at home

should trouble all of us in this country.

And I just believe deeply that if we're serious about peace,

that that peace has to be built on justice,

not just an end to violence now, right?

But a real pathway to liberation and self-determination

and peace and dignity for Palestinians

and Jewish Israelis alike.

And I just think that when our tax dollars

are part of making that worse,

we have a set of questions we have to answer here

about how we make our problems better

rather than making other people's problems worse.

Yeah, I was, thank you for saying that.

And I agree wholeheartedly, but it just,

it really troubled me as I watched sort of the pageantry

yesterday and knowing I'm not as steeped in the history of it

as probably you are and all of the intricate information.

But just watching the pictures yesterday,

it reminded me, it seemed sort of stage crafty.

I felt like I was watching a Trump Inc. production

of everything that was happening.

And I just kept wondering as I was reading

and listening to all of the analysis

and what levers they had to hit next

in order to continue to make this ceasefire

and peace deal work.

And I kept saying, well, where is the stuff

about the concrete stuff about actually rebuilding

the concrete in Gaza?

Where's all of that?

Where are the hospitals?

Where are the libraries?

Where are the schools?

Where's the concrete information

that this is actually gonna take place?

I was watching Richard Haas, who's a foreign policy expert.

I think he was on MSNBC yesterday

and he had this analysis

and I wonder if you agree with it, here it is.

Next.

Well, it's gonna be next to these immediate,

these meetings, perhaps some of the first steps

of this plan, but then we're gonna have Israeli elections

and you're not gonna have an accounting on October 7th

before Israeli elections because Bibi Netanyahu

will still be prime minister.

So he's gonna run for reelection.

My guess is sometime this spring

against the backdrop of having one, defeated Iran

and two now brought the hostages home,

even though some Israelis will not forgive him

for the delay.

My guess is he stands a pretty good chance.

This is not advocacy, this is analysis.

I think he's got a pretty good chance

of getting the most votes.

Then we'll see what's the political nature

of the government he forms.

Then we begin the new phase, which if you will

is open-ended, which is the question of what comes next.

And the real question for President Trump

is do we put on the table something

that really begins to flesh out a piece?

Because if you read the 20-point plan,

the last two points deal with the political aspirations

and trajectory of the Palestinians.

They could not be more vague if you tried.

They are essentially empty of content.

And the question is does the United States

begin to fill out some of that content

and do we begin to push it?

And do we basically make the piece, if we have to,

over the heads of a reluctant Israeli government?

Do we begin to work with the Palestinians

and the Arabs to build an acceptable partner for Israel?

Negotiations don't just happen at the table.

All the work to get to the table is gonna be up to us.

It's gonna mean stabilizing Gaza, rebuilding Gaza,

coming up with an acceptable Palestinian partner,

selling the Israeli public, which in turn

will push the Israeli leadership.

That's gonna be on the United States.

That's the history of Middle East peacemaking.

The question is, is this administration prepared

to do that work?

This would have to become one of the priorities,

probably the leading or one of the two leading

foreign policy priorities for this administration.

And the question is, are they prepared to do it?

Doctor, what do you say to that?

So I think your viewer, Therese summed it up perfectly.

Trump only cares about Trump.

This is all an effort to put a trophy on the mantle

for Donald Trump because of his own personal narcissism

and egoism.

Now look, the fact that we are in a position right now

where hostages on both sides have been released,

where there are not bombs dropping on Gaza

and children being murdered, that is, like I said,

a very good thing.

But I'll tell you this, one of the challenges has been

that we have often assumed that it is the right

and responsibility of American policymakers

to make policy about what happens over there.

And there is a hubris implicit in that,

in thinking that we get to call shots over there.

But even then, right, it's always wild to me

that every president before this one has articulated

a belief in a two state solution, okay?

And then the question that you always get asked is,

does Israel have a right to exist?

Israel exists, clearly Israel exists,

but you know what nobody ever asks you

when you're running for office?

Does Palestine have a right to exist?

And yet our policies have been about aiding,

arming and abetting the very people

in Israeli society who have tried and tried

to foreclose on the possibility of a Palestine.

And what Haas is talking about here is the notion

that Bibi Netanyahu is likely to win his reelection,

should be a crazy thing.

The dude perpetrated a genocide.

And on top of that, failed to keep even the basic sense

of security for his own people on what grounds

does somebody like that get reelected?

And yet, while we are watching a genocide in Gaza,

they were also continuing to ship in settlers

in places like the West Bank,

continuing to disappear people off the streets

in the West Bank.

And that is about perpetrating facts on the ground

to undo the possibility that there should be

Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank.

And so what I'm seeing here is a set of actors

that has both perpetrated a genocide

and also are trying to foreclose on the possibility

that there should be a pathway to liberation

and self-determination for the Palestinian people.

And as an American who believes that my tax dollars

ought to be spent here in America,

the notion that we are sending them to underwrite people

who want to do that,

that to me seems foolish and hypocritical.

And the question that we have here is,

do we want to be honest about what goals

ought to be both here in America

and how our money gets used abroad?

And that's something that in the US Senate,

accountability and responsibility to our people here at home

and also to not make problems worse abroad,

that to me is foundational.

And we don't have many of those voices in the US Senate,

which is 100% part of the problem.

Thank you for answering that question.

I wanna, do I really have you for a few more minutes

because I wanna ask you about what other things

that are going on in the world.

You have to look, I gotta pay the bills, okay,

to stay in the streaming world.

So here's what I wanna do.

I wanna talk to Dr. El Sayed about what's happening

on American streets with ICE and members of the military

being out on the streets.

And also right now, MAGA, many of them,

as I told you in the beginning of this program,

they are turning on Donald Trump.

They're fed up, they're wondering,

why did I vote for this?

Or this is not what I voted for.

Give me two minutes and we're back with Dr. El Sayed

in just moments, two minutes.

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Yes, thank you very much to all of our sponsors.

Doctor, I don't know if you've been paying attention

to our coverage, but we have been,

I've been out on the streets of Chicago.

I just got back from Chicago late last night

or early this morning.

I witnessed some of the standoffs and skirmishes

there in the streets.

I wanna play you a little bit of it

and then I wanna talk to you about it.

Here it is.

From all the shuffling and skirmishes that are happening here,

they've moved people back.

Yeah, they're telling us it's the first time

they've seen the ICE agents come out.

(people chattering)

They're saying you need to move or you'll be arrested.

That's what the officers are saying.

And then, so doctor, if we leave this up,

you'll see some of the pushing, the officers move in.

We'll just leave it up without sound.

But the only violence I really saw there

is when they were trying to curtail the protesters

who were peaceful.

And so, you know, it's very concerning to me

that I feel like the administration may be looking for ways

that they can invoke the Insurrection Act

by somehow inciting people to violence.

And then, of course, we have the images of people

being picked up off the street,

being thrown to the ground, handcuffed, kicked, beaten,

taken into custody.

I spoke to a man who was an American citizen

who had all of his information with him,

including his birth certificate.

They didn't wanna see any of that.

Don, I mean, this imagery should sicken all of us.

That is an American neighborhood.

On any given Sunday, you should be able to walk down

that neighborhood and folks are in their house

watching the bears.

The idea that you have a standoff with federal agents

is manufactured by Donald Trump and his goons

for one purpose, to deliver yet more power

over our peaceful streets to him and them.

That is their whole point.

This administration has weaponized the idea of immigration

to tear apart our Constitution.

They are doing it left, right, and center.

Whether it's the attack on habeas corpus,

whether it's the attack on due process,

whether it's the attack on our streets generally,

and the notion that you should not have American troops

on the streets.

Just remember, the whole Bill of Rights

was developed specifically to protect the American people

from overstepping by the government.

That's why the whole thing was created.

And here you have this administration creating this.

And what they're hoping to do is they're trying

to create this imagery to use to politically justify

bringing yet more federal agents and troops

onto US streets, and we have a responsibility

to stand up to that.

Now, the hard part is this.

When they're trying to provoke violence,

violence begets the outcome that they want.

What we have to all commit ourselves to doing

is peaceful, nonviolent protest.

Peaceful, nonviolent protest.

And look, our elected officials have to use every shred

and ounce of power within the bounds of the Constitution

and that goal of peaceful, nonviolent protest

to hold this administration accountable.

My family comes from Egypt.

I know the difference between kidnapping and arrest.

Arrest is when they tell you who they are,

why they're detaining you, and what you need to do

to challenge that.

Kidnapping is when they don't tell you who they are,

they pick you up, and you got nothing you can say about it.

And that difference is the rule of law,

and they're attacking it right now.

Yeah, they are, but I gotta tell you,

I'm not sure what's being done about it,

that folks are taking these cases to court,

but that's gonna take a while before any of that,

whether it stops anything, and there's some of the violence

you're seeing happening there.

I don't know how long it takes,

and especially while Donald Trump and his administration,

they're defying federal judges.

They ask them to remove troops, they don't,

they just leave them there.

And what is the recourse, doctor?

What is the recourse?

Look, the recourse is that we need to demand

accountability at the ballot box.

The worry that I and so many of us should have

is that the way our process should work

is that when an administration undergoes public policy

that we disagree with, that we can vote in accountability.

Presidents are elected every four years,

but Congress and 30% of the Senate is elected every two.

And the worry that I think all of us should have

is the threat against a free and fair election.

And that means that all of us right now

need to be standing up to demand freedom and fairness

in the next election.

And we're already seeing them come for that

in this redistricting bonanza

that you're seeing on the part of red states.

But I also understand that the value of the fact

that our elections are overseen by states

is that we can operate at the state level

to protect free and fair elections.

But beyond that, I need to see more accountability,

more engagement with the current crop

of federal elected officials we have right now.

Strongly worded letters are not gonna do it.

Just simply bringing signs is not gonna do it.

I want folks to be willing to go to their communities

every single day and show up when there is accountability

against the federal government,

when we're talking about peaceful, nonviolent protest,

we have a responsibility to stand up and lead that effort.

And so we need to see a lot more of that

from the current crop of elected officials we already have.

I wanna talk about what's happening with MAGA.

I mentioned that MAGA is,

they're very disheartened, many of them,

the influencers and the politicians

with Donald Trump in this administration.

Especially after Pete Hegseth announced last week

that they were gonna allow a new Qatari air base

here in America.

This is a headline from Laura Loomer.

She tweeted out, this is an abomination.

She also said that we're going to be a Muslim country

for allowing this to happen.

And then she says, I'm not voting in 2026.

And then Nick Buentes is slamming Donald Trump

over his celebration of Israel, the Israel celebration.

He is saying, Trump's celebratory speech in Israel

is disgusting.

He's praising Miriam Adelson for being Israel first,

calls for Netanyahu to be pardoned.

And within minutes of the war ending,

they began to whitewash what happened in Gaza

and get everyone to move on.

We will never forget.

And then you have this from Candace Owens.

(laughs)

And Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, by the way,

for the planned ethnic cleansing

so that they could profit on the land

and turn it into a beach town.

So let me say this.

This is our never again, okay?

This is a Holocaust.

A Holocaust just happened.

A real Holocaust just happened.

We will never forget this.

You need to tell your children what happened in Gaza.

You need to tell them exactly who did it,

exactly whose families were involved in this.

And when you hear in the future, somebody tell you,

like, we're going to Gaza Beach for a vacation.

You need to look at them

like they are the absolute vermin of our society

because they are, they are.

Their children will be cursed, okay?

You go and you play in the sand

where you know that your forefathers

planned to mass murder children,

you will be cursed.

Every person who steps foot on that,

every family that is set to inherit what they did,

they will be cursed.

Your children's children will be cursed.

Gaza belongs to nobody but the Palestinians.

So when you begin to move the Israelis in there

and when the Trump Hotel gets built on there,

I caution the rest of the world

to stay far away from that cursed land

because something is coming.

You can't commit that much evil in broad daylight

and not think it's going to come back to haunt you.

Wow, I mean, I mean, you've lost Candace Owens, doctor.

It is a mind blowing moment.

And, you know, I got no love lost for Nick Fuentes

or Laura Loomer who tweets about me every week now

or Candace Owens.

Right on, I agree.

And I disagree with the Islamophobia

and the antisemitism that too often gets spewed.

But it is a moment right now

where you watch this administration move

and they're doing the things that anybody

who would have tried to extrapolate from the last month

of his first term into the future, you would have predicted.

And you start to realize that folks have been duped

and I spend most of my days up and down

the state of Michigan.

And I'm talking to folks, 20%, 30% of every room

that I walk into voted for Donald Trump.

And they're saying the same things in different language.

I didn't think he was serious about that stuff.

I thought he was finally gonna help me out.

And there are two overwhelming realizations

that always hit me right in the chest

that I really wanna share with your viewers.

The first one is we've got an opportunity.

For those of us who want to see this country

head forward in a direction of peace, prosperity

and honest leadership, we've got an opportunity

to come together to build something that's greater

than the sum of its parts.

If we are willing to go back to the ideals

of a government of the people, by the people

and for the people.

But then the second overwhelming realization

that I often have is what went wrong

in the Democratic party that we couldn't beat that.

And it's so frustrating to me because I ran once before

in 2018, I said this thing that people weren't quite ready

to hear, which is that Donald Trump himself

is not the disease of our politics.

He's just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics.

And when you deal with the symptom, but you don't deal

with the disease, the symptom comes back worse.

And that disease is the way that corporations, oligarchs

have been able to corrupt our system to buy

and sell politicians to do their bidding.

So when you talk to everyday folks out in the sticks

in Michigan, right communities where, right

there aren't that many people

and they have traditionally voted for Donald Trump.

When you have that conversation and you start talking

about democracy and protecting democracy, they'll look back

at you and say, democracy hasn't been delivering

for me for years.

It hasn't actually been helping to make sure I can stay

in my home or the job I've worked every last year

is going to be there for me next year, or made sure

that my kid goes to a quality school

where they can get jobs for tomorrow.

And if we can't make democracy actually deliver

on the basic foundations of a dignified life,

at a lot of, in a lot of ways people have foregone

that the democracy was broken a long time ago.

And this is just the final set of nails in the coffin.

So I think we have a unique opportunity right now

to come together in communities across places

like Michigan and in other States, to come back

to the ideals of a politics that actually will deliver

on those basic things, taking money out of politics

putting money back in people's pockets,

passing basic guaranteed healthcare, Medicare for all

that can bring everyone together beyond the cultural war

that has platformed the Nick frontesses

and the Laurel lumers and the, and the Candace Owens

of the world to bring folks back

who've been systematically lied to.

Cause if they're lying to the culture warriors

they've been lying to the everyday voters for decades.

And the question is who's going to be the one

who tells them the truth.

And I think we got that opportunity.

Hmm. I don't know if you saw many has signs

and if there's a tweet or whatever you want to call it

he put it up yesterday.

This is what Maddy said.

Let me get my glasses here.

He said the hostage release today

and the credit Trump is getting is a reminder

of just how bad the Democrats are at politics.

Not only did Biden refuse to force his deal on Netanyahu

and thereby help Harris defeat Trump

but most people aren't even aware

that Biden got way more Israeli hostages

over 100 released from capacity from captivity, excuse me

with his November 23rd ceasefire than Trump did with his

but that ceasefire has been memory hold

including by many Dems.

The Dems are often their own worst enemies.

Now there were a lot of folks who on this

you know, in the comment section who disagree with Maddy

saying also blaming the media history will

it's this one person says history will be way more kind

to Biden and his accomplishments.

I don't think it will be so kind to the biased media.

So what do you make of this whole thing

and what Maddy said is this messaging?

Is it, is it, do you, do you agree with him?

I try not to waste my time

debating the legacies of old men.

I'm a lot more interested in where we go from here.

Good.

I am deeply saddened that we could not

have gotten here earlier.

And I think everybody involved with allowing a genocide

to perpetuate for two years has blood on their hands.

And to me, that means Donald Trump, that means Joe Biden.

This should never have been here.

And it certainly means Netanyahu and all of his enablers

inside of Israeli politics.

And it means, frankly, everyone in Congress

who green lit all of this money that we sent abroad

to do what was done.

The question to me right now,

the question that matters for a child in Gaza

or a child in Detroit is are we willing

to take what has happened here, look at it in its totality,

not just two years of genocide,

but decades of brutal occupation and siege before that.

Thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people,

dead, homes decimated, schools destroyed, hospitals broken.

Are we willing to look at that in its totality

and say we need to foundationally turn the page?

Because I hate to say it,

it was our tax dollars to subsidize this,

$22 billion of our tax dollars.

And guess what?

They're about to certify to send more.

And my question right now is when do we call it an end?

Because as we talked about,

Donald Trump is trying to get his flowers

on bringing this to the slimmest margin of a piece.

But to me, piece is structural,

built on justice and accountability

and a pathway forward for the highest needs of peoples,

regardless of who they are.

How do we build for that?

Like that's what I wanna focus on.

And right now, I hate to say it,

the Democratic Party, the Republican Party,

our politics generally have been dominated

around this politics dominated

because there is a lot of MAGA billionaire money

spent to dictate outcomes of elections, right?

Through huge amounts of attack ads

spent in congressional and senatorial

and gubernatorial elections across the country.

And maybe that's a good place to start, right?

So, I've been clear,

I would never seek APAC's endorsement or their money.

I don't take any corporate money

because I think that's part of the problem.

So are we willing to actually have a structural analysis

of what led us here

and how we stop doing this in the future

rather than debating the legacies of two old men?

Yeah, with pictures of Gaza up right now.

Doctor, thank you so much.

Where do we find you?

Where can the folks who listen and support me,

where can they support you and your podcast?

Well, I really appreciate that.

So go ahead and follow us on socials,

at Abdul El Sayed, A-B-D-U-L, the traditional spelling.

El Sayed, E-L-S-A-Y-E-D,

or go to abdullforsentate.com.

Look, I don't take corporate money.

So for folks who wanna chip us a couple bucks,

it is huge for us.

We just closed our last quarter.

We raised 1.77 million, 24,000 donors.

And if you'd like to join them

and help our truly people powered movement,

I hope that you will.

And follow us.

We'll be dropping more fun videos as we go

because if you want to build the future,

you have to show the joy that's possible in that future.

We try to bring that on our campaign every single day.

There's a lot of darkness.

So we're trying to bring some joy about the future

we can yet build together.

And I hope that folks will join us.

And Don, I'm so grateful for you.

We got to meet when we were talking about

another dark period in the COVID pandemic on CNN.

I'm just grateful that you've continued to work here

and we'd love to join you again.

So you let us know and looking forward

to seeing you soon, okay?

Well, I gotta tell you, we'd love to have you

because the engagement is really great this morning

and the lemon heads, as we call it,

the lemon nation really, really like you.

So Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is running for the Open Senate seat

in the great state of Michigan.

How are you doing there?

You doing okay in the polls?

I feel really good.

The polling shows us right there tied for first statistically.

And then, I'm not a betting man,

but apparently people who do bet

the prediction markets got us up.

So, I guess I'll take it.

And up until then, my job more importantly

is to make sure I'm resonating with folks

and communities across the state.

We've been to 58, 59 cities now, 120 public events.

We go everywhere, talk to everybody.

And those conversations,

they give me so much hope in our future

because I'm seeing real people and what they're feeling

and what they want for their kids and their grandkids.

And if we can all touch on that feeling, that emotion,

I think we can get there as dark as these times have been.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Best of luck.

Come back soon, okay?

I'll talk to you soon.

We'll do. Well, that was a breath of fresh air.

I'm so glad that he's here and that he was here.

And I'm glad, I'd love to see candidates like that.

And look, I don't vote in Michigan, but man,

if I live there, he might probably get my vote.

I'm just saying, he seems on top of it.

He's got the right tone.

He's got the right message.

He looks the part, like Donald Trump says,

out of central casting.

I wanna talk to you more about the manosphere

and the politicians who are turning on MAGA.