Abdul El-Sayed fired back at President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians who attacked his Muslim faith during his Senate campaign during an appearance on “The View” Thursday, just two days after his historic victory in Michigan.
The 42-year-old Democrat, who defeated Republican Mike Rogers to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, reflected on the Islamophobic rhetoric that dominated the final weeks of his campaign and credited Michigan voters with rejecting the divisive attacks.
“They weren’t attacking me. They were attacking the idea of an America big enough for me,” El-Sayed told the co-hosts. “I didn’t take a bet on my abilities or anything. I took a bet on the goodness of the people of Michigan.”
During the interview, Sunny Hostin ran through some of the most incendiary remarks made about El-Sayed by prominent Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, who suggested there was something “very, very evil” about him, and Sen. Ted Cruz, who called him a “jihadist leprechaun.”
“I want a hat!” El-Sayed joked in response to the latter insult.
Hostin also brought up Trump’s remarks at an October campaign rally in Michigan, where the president called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and suggested he would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” Trump also invoked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks while urging voters to reject the Democratic candidate.
“If they had something to say about the price of gas or the price of groceries or the fact that people can’t see a doctor, they would’ve said it,” El-Sayed said of the Republican attacks. “But they didn’t have anything to say.”
“I kind of knew they were gonna reach for the red meat,” he continued. “But here’s the problem with the red meat: It becomes an addiction. Once you go there and you put that out there, then you’re forced to defend it. So what do they do? They double down. They triple down again.”
As for Trump’s metal detector comments, El-Sayed reiterated a challenge he first issued to the president at a campaign rally in Kalamazoo last week.
“I’ll do a metal detector test all day because I have nothing to hide,” he said, before addressing the president directly: “Donald, if you’re watching, a lie detector is still on the table.”
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