Abdul El-Sayed says Democrats must ‘win massively’ to beat back GOP election denial

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said his fellow Democrats need to “win massively” in the upcoming midterm elections for the outcome “to be indisputable.”

“Donald Trump has already threatened to do what he did in 2020, which was deny the results of an election,” El-Sayed told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.

Asked by NBC News on Saturday whether he would accept the results of the midterm elections regardless of who wins, Trump replied: “Of course I will. But we don’t want cheating.”

El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, also denied the 2020 election results, El-Sayed told moderator Kristen Welker. “The guy I’m running against is insinuating that he didn’t actually lose in 2020,” he said. “He talks about this legendary van that arrived in Detroit with a bunch of votes, as if he hadn’t lost.”

Asked by Welker whether he thought Trump and Rogers would challenge his race if the results were close, El-Sayed responded: “I’m concerned that Donald Trump and Mike Rogers are not committed to the institution of our democracy.” »

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump targeted Michigan with voter fraud claims that were ultimately dismissed by a judge, who called them “nothing more than speculation and conjecture.”

Michigan was also among a handful of states where Trump supporters sought in 2020 to submit a list of so-called fake electors to the Electoral College to falsely declare that Trump had won. Fifteen people were charged in connection with the alleged scheme, but their charges were later dismissed.

Earlier this year, in a series of growing investigations into the state’s voter rolls, the Trump administration demanded that Wayne County, where Detroit is located, turn over all of its ballots for the 2024 presidential election to the federal government.

In the “Meet the Press” interview, recorded Friday, El-Sayed expressed confidence in his ability to win over former Trump voters with his campaign’s economic focus. This means making health care more accessible through “Medicare for All” and fighting against corporate interests.

“Everywhere I go, I meet someone who comes and says, ‘Look, I voted for Trump two, three times, and I’m voting for you.’ And I ask why. They say, “It’s because you really want me to get health care.” I really want them to have health care. “That’s because you truly are America First.” I’m truly America First,” said El-Sayed, a former public health official.

He also hopes these economic messages will resonate with Jewish voters who would otherwise be skeptical of him because of his criticism of Israel and his rhetoric.

“The things that unite us are much greater than those that divide us, much greater. We believe in religious pluralism. We believe in the separation of church and state. We believe that more people deserve health care. We believe in reproductive rights. We believe that Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy. We believe that corporations should not be able to buy politicians,” he said.

El-Sayed again expressed regret over his initial reaction following a March car-ramming attack on a synagogue near Detroit. He then condemned the attack, but added that “hurt people, hurt people”, pointing out that some members of the attacker’s family had died days earlier during airstrikes in Lebanon.

“If I step on someone’s grief, of course I regret it. And I really wish I had thought about how someone would have felt hearing that and thought twice before making those comments,” El-Sayed told Welker.

“My commitment to the safety of Jews is the same as my commitment to my own children,” he added. “And we need to be able to know that we can go to our schools, we can go to our places of worship and no one is going to attack. »

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates from both parties, targeted El-Sayed’s initial comments on the attack in letters sent to voters this week.

A super PAC called “Together for Michigan” also began running ads this week focused on the remarks. In one ad, a woman claims her son was in the synagogue the day of the attack, telling viewers that El-Sayed “gave an excuse for someone who wanted to murder children. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but this election I’m voting for Mike Rogers.”

With the latest campaign for the midterm elections underway, Welker asked El-Sayed about his plans to campaign with former President Barack Obama. In a 2012 HuffPost opinion piece, El-Sayed wrote that “Obama was the wrong choice. He simply wasn’t the wrong choice. This leader has perpetrated war, violated our civil liberties, expelled more people from our shores than any president before him, and the list of his failures goes on.”

On Friday, El-Sayed said time had changed his view of Obama.

“I think about President Obama’s eight years of leadership and you compare that to the 12 years we’ve had since. You look back and you say, ‘Man, he was a really competent leader, who led with a kind of trust in people and an uncommon grace, even for people who disagreed with him,'” El-Sayed said.

He added that he considers Obama a “mentor” and that great mentors “let you grow.”