All In with Chris HayesAugust 6, 202641m

Abdul El-Sayed FIRES BACK at anti-Muslim attacks after Michigan win

Showing mention at 12:26 — highlighted below

Transcript

117 segments
0:00

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Good evening from New York. I'm Jacob Soberoff and for Chris Hayes. I just got back from Michigan, an election that was months in the making. A primary between progressives and establishment Democrats over a Senate seat in a swing state that the party absolutely has to win in November. And the Progressive Challenger won. Abdul El-Sayed will be the party's nominee for the open Senate seat in Michigan. The 41-year-old epidemiologist and Rhodes Scholar edged out sitting Congresswoman, Haley Stevens, in a heavily contested race that everybody was watching, everybody, for clues about the future of the Democratic Party. If you believe like me that you ought to be able to afford your groceries, if you believe like me. that you ought to be able to afford your home. If you believe like me, that your tax dollars ought to be invested in you rather than sent somewhere else, if you believe like me, that you ought to have the guarantee of good health care in this country without some corporation trying to tell you what you cannot have and should not fight for, I hope that you'll join this movement now. El Sayed had the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, but Haley Stevens as opponent had the support of the Democratic establishment. From Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, they argued that the party needed a more centrist candidate in the general election. And Stevens also benefited from an estimated $62 million in spending from outside groups. More than half of that total, according to the New York Times, came from the super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the country's most influential pro-Israel group. That money gave Stevens and her allies about a nine-to-one spending advantage over Abdul El-Sayed. And even with that huge disadvantage, El-Syed still won. But man, you could feel it on the ground. It was close. And I learned as much yesterday on the ground speaking to Democratic voters in Detroit, the ones who voted for El Sayed, almost all of them that I spoke with, they told me something's got to change. El Sayed or Stevens? Uh, El Sayed. You think he's going to win? I do. Stevens or El Sayed? Uh, El Sayed by a hair. Why Stevens over El Sait? She does what she says. She's going to do, and she's very honest, trustworthy. Stevens or El Sayed? I voted for Stevens. I voted for Abdul El-Sayed. So wait a minute. The two of you here shopping. Great friends. Great friends. Great friends. Agree on most everything. We got El-Sayed and we got Stevens. What's the difference for the two of you? I'm going progressive this election. I'd like to blow everything up and start from scratch. And you went with the trusted voice or for you the trusted voice here in Michigan? Yes. So who are you for? What's your prediction? Elsa, oh, freaking me, come on. Get money out of politics, baby. Bring it back to the people.

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They were not shy at the eastern market. On day one of the general election, El-Sayed faces a huge test against the Republican, former Congressman Mike Rogers. But Democrats appear to have some real momentum here. This morning, El-Sayed got a full-throated endorsement from Haley Stevens, his primary opponent. And this afternoon, the former vice president, Kamala Harris, was sending out fundraising emails on his behalf. But the Republicans, the Republicans and their allies have got their knives out. El-Sayed is a Michigan-born son of Egyptian immigrants. He has been a vocal critic of Israel and its war in Gaza. A-PAC is already vowing to help his Republican opponent now, saying in a press release, quote, our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November. Republicans, for their part, are being far less subtle in their criticisms, leading with Islamophobia and leading with lies. Donald Trump called Abdul El-Sayed a communist loser who hates Jews and Israel on social media, saying his victory was great news for the Republican Party. Mike Rogers, El-Sayed's Republican opponent, put out a press release that said this, quote, I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9-11. That is something that Abdul El-Sayed never said. And the National Republican Senatorial Committee called Abdul El-Sayed the most radical candidate in America, referred to him by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed. That was a departure from previous press releases. You know what that sounds like? Echoes of Barack Hussein Obama right there. Echoes that Abdul El-Sayed was happy to answer today. That's the only play they got. They're going to point in me. I'm going to point him on my name. It's like, well, he's different. That's the best you got. You can't actually talk about what you want to do. My name is not raising your gas prices. My name is not taking us to war. My name is not the reason you can't afford your groceries. You know what it is? They're BS policies. So you can point to my name all he wants. But I also tell you this, I've been an Abdul in Michigan my whole life. This is like the best place in the world to be Abdul. You know why? Because Michiganders are, they're big-hearted. They're open-minded. They're earnest and they're gritty. But will Michigananders feel the same way after they're bombarded? And we know they're going to be with hundreds of millions of dollars in ads from APAC and Republican groups and possibly even the world's richest man, Elon Musk. And if the rights disinformation does start working on the voting public, are establishment moderates, progressive Democrats? Are they going to be able to keep this anti-Trump coalition together? Or will they put a pivotal Senate seat in jeopardy? Who better to ask than the candidate himself. Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee for Senate for Michigan. He joins me now. Congratulations, sir. Thank you so much, Jacob. It's like I see you in Detroit. I see you now. You're in New York. Everywhere.

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I got a lot of makeup on. I got a tired face, but I cannot imagine how tired you are. I was at your victory party last night, and the vibes were real. There are other people who are watching this very, very closely, including the vice president of the United States, who was just asked on Fox News about your victory. Let me show you a little bit of what he had to say. The base of the Democratic Party just wants radicals. It wants these DSA types. It wants people who hate even the idea of private property ownership. But it also, I think, tells us that that particular set of ideas is very popular in places you wouldn't expect. Because Abdul El-Sayed, he's this guy who holds himself out as a working-class hero, as a guy who's going to fight for the working class. How does he fight for the working class by flooding his state and his country with low-age immigrants? In case you missed any of that, he said that the Democratic Party wants people who hate the idea of even private property ownership. It's very popular in places you wouldn't expect, speaking of Michigan. He said you hold yourself out as a working class hero who's going to fight for the working class by flooding your state with low-wage immigrants. What's your response? Is that Peter Thiel's boy with that Ohio charisma he's got? That guy. I, you know, I think we've had enough of him. The last thing that he said that made any sense was Hillbilly Elgy after he said that Donald Trump had no business being president of anything. That was the last time he made sense and then he decided to suck up to power. But that's exactly what this is about. You've got Republicans who'll do anything for power and money, including corrupt their office, just like Mike Rogers has. For the 14 years, he was serving in Congress. He took over a million dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. He voted 19 times to raise prescription drug prices. And then he helped to architect the legislation that kicked off the opioid epidemic, killing nearly 600,000 people. Why? for money and power. But that's what that party's about. We're trying to get money out of politics to put money in your pocket past Medicare for All, which of course are things that people like Ohio JD Vance and Mike Rogers have no clue about because they've always been in it for themselves rather than for the public. I was looking at some of the headlines about your victory that have come out, you know, since last night. Democrats path unclear. Democrats, licking wounds, warning for Democrats. These are mainstream headlines about you and the victory. What's your reaction to this framing about the race? Well, I understand if you think that the whole point here is about where the Democrats go, you might miss the fact that this is about everyday people in the state of Michigan. My goal is to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for all. Because when I talk to Michiganders, as I have for the better part of 15 months in their living rooms, in their basements, in their backyards, and their parks, they don't tell me about where they sit on the left-right spectrum. They're asking me about who's going to show up to make sure that I can afford my groceries? Who's going to make sure that I can see a doctor when I get sick? Who's going to make sure that the infrastructure that I travel, the roads and bridges don't pop my tire every time I drive over them? And who's going to make sure my kids' school is competent? Those are the questions people are asking.

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asking, and they're asking them because Donald Trump and his acolytes like Mike Rogers have done just such a piss poor job at actually doing the thing they got elected to do. They're taking us to what another war? We've got an opportunity to actually answer their problems. That's what this movement was built on doing. And that's why I think Democrats have a real pathway forward. If you look at the numbers coming out of yesterday, Democrats voted in, what, 500,000 more voters? If we show up like that in November. what's that going to mean for Mike Rogers and frankly any of their chances? You mentioned universal health care, Medicare for All. It's been a central part of your campaign. I would imagine there are a lot of people who are saying some version of this to you or when you're out on the campaign trail. Congress cannot even, there's no way that they're going to pass Medicare for All under this president. They can't even exercise their war powers. What do you tell those people about whether or not this is a pie in the sky dream that you're going around Michigan talking about? Well, clearly I'm a different kind of Democrat, as we just talked about, $60 million spent to try and beat me because I don't take corporate money. I'm here to actually take on the challenges that working people face. Imagine you had a Congress that actually worked for you instead of worked for the corporations in the exact same way that Mike Rogers has made it work for a very long time. I really believe that Congress can do good things. That's why I'm running because I'd like to make it do good things. But it's going to take defeating the defeatism of Trumpism and of Mike Rogers. and the kind of politics that tells us that Congress basically sits there to figure out how to make themselves rich or to enrich the corporate donor class that they have been taking orders from for a very long time. You know, though, what Mike Rogers is going to say when you're standing on the debate stage talking about Medicare for all. He's going to say you want to take away people's private insurance and socialized medicine is what they always say. You're going to say what to him on that debate stage? Do you know what's taking away people's private insurance, the fact that they can't afford it? The fact that the deductibles, the premiums have gotten way too high because of people like Mike Rogers who take checks from the private insurance industry and then fail to regulate them. So they keep upping the prices on people, putting people into bankruptcy. We owe $225 billion in medical debt. I want to know what Mike Rogers wants to do about that. I want to abolish it and I want to make sure that every single person in this country has the health care that they need and deserve. But will you be saying on that debate stage people can keep their private insurance if they want it? Yeah, look, I'm not against abolishing private insurance. I'm for guaranteeing you public insurance so that you never have to worry about what happens if you turn 26 or get a job or lose a job or turn 65 or get married or get divorced. All the ways that Mike Rogers is okay with you losing your health care in our current health care system. It looks like today everybody seems to be coming together. But, you know, but I talked to some of your voters yesterday who said that they wouldn't vote at all in November if Stevens won to the Stevens voters who may have felt the same way about you that they're going to sit it out because they can't get behind you. You say what to them? Hey, this is a big tent. And I know we might not agree on everything. But I do hope that you agree with me that the things that bring us together are so much bigger than the things that might be dividing us. And that we have an opportunity to protect ourselves from an ongoing Trump administration that has enriched him, what, $2.2 billion personally, but also taking so much money out of our pockets. If you believe that we need to be able to make groceries affordable, we need to be able to afford housing, we need health care when we need it, then I hope that you'll join me in this movement to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket,

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Medicare for all. I'm grateful for Congresswoman Stevens' fight and for her support in this race. As with Senator McMorough, we are unified in the idea that Mike Rogers should never see the inside of the U.S. Senate, and we do need to hold Donald Trump accountable, and that's exactly what I intend to do when I'm in the U.S. Senate. Anybody who's got a phone or a television, certainly Michiganders, who might be on the fence are getting blasted with this sort of this message right now. There's a Hasan Piker video that's out there, and I don't know if you've seen it. I ran into him yesterday, a very popular streamer. He supports you. You've campaigned together. He's a controversial guy. On a stream last night, he addressed this. It's all over Fox News. I want to play just a little bit of it for you in our audience. Everyone being like Abdullah is a ton of work to do mending bridges. Here's the take nuke for you, okay? You are all unbelievably Islamophobic pieces of shit, okay? You literally called the dude a terrorist for months on end and like called him a sexist, misogynist, terrorist, bad candidate, doesn't fake doctor when he has like two degrees. And now you're going to sit there and be like, well, you know. You've really got to come to me now. Like, what are you talking about? Do you want to win or not? Lock the in. His words have been used against you before. They're being used against you again. He's here talking about mending bridges and basically giving you advice. I'm to paraphrasing, not necessarily to do that. What do you make of that advice? Is that helpful advice for you? Look, he's a streamer. I'm focused on trying to win a race. for Senate in Michigan. And I've been up and down my state, spent the last 15 months talking to Michiganders. And I understand that this is a very serious election and that we've got to come together. Obviously, he's got his perspective on it and he's welcome to his perspective. It's not mine. My perspective on it is that you have to ask for every vote. I've been in this work for 15 months and then I ran for office eight years ago. And I know that a vote is a very serious thing. And folks want to give it to people that they know and trust. And if we've got more trust to build, I'm looking forward to doing that. And I hope. folks who trust the congresswoman enough to vote for her, now trust her endorsement of me to beat Mike Rogers. That's going to be the work that we do for the next to 13 weeks. I want them to understand exactly what the contrast is between a corporatist who never saw a corporate check he didn't want and somebody who's never taken a corporate check to run a campaign and never will. We've got an opportunity to win the future here in Michigan, and we intend to do that. Do you intend to continue to campaign with us on Hasan Piker? I'm focused on campaigning in this state all over the state. I'm not as focused on who I'm campaigning with. I'm focused on who I'm campaigning for, which is the 10 million people in the state, reaching out to them in their communities like I have for the past 15 months. I have to ask you about this Islamophobia that is already coming in to this race. It did in the primary, but now already in the general election on day one. I want to reread what your opponent, Mike Rogers, said in particular today. He said, Abdul isn't just another liberal. He is an extremist. Never in a million years did I think I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9-11. I have to let you respond to that.

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Well, look, you know, Mike Rogers has no new ideas. He was in Congress, what, 2000 to 2015? He left Congress, made $14 million. He doesn't want to explain. His ideas are old. His perspective on politics is old. And he's going to find that people don't want that perspective anymore. So, of course, he's going to do the same thing that Maga always does, which is try to divide us. I've been Abdul in Michigan my whole life. I'm so grateful for the way Michiganders have embraced me and my family. And I know that Michiganders are open-minded. They're big-hearted. They're less interested in how you pray than what you pray for. And we all pray for the same things. We want what's good for our kids and our families. We want clean air, clean water. Healthcare we can afford. So they're going to use Islamophobia because their ideas are tired. Their economy sucks. They're taking us to war. We shouldn't fight. And we have an opportunity to actually focus on bringing us together. So if he has some new ideas he'd like to talk about, I've challenged him to five debates. Mike, if you're watching five debates, but you're a coward, so you probably won't do it. I second your sentiment about Michiganers. It was incredible to be there yesterday. Congratulations to you. I'm sure I'll see you out there again over the course of the next several months. Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Thank you so much again. Congratulations. Jacob, thank you so much. And any time in Michigan, come have a kebab with me, huh? Oh, count me in. I'm in. See you then. Thanks. Still ahead, Donald Trump says the voters should decide if Max Miller is fit to serve in Congress. I'm going to talk to the Democrat running to unseat the embattled Republican. Plus, Senator Sheldon White House on his impassioned call to stop Todd Blanche from becoming the next attorney general. We've got all that and much more on what we learned from the election last night. That's coming up next. We'll be right back.

18:36

Yesterday, as voters went to the polls in Michigan, I got a chance to speak with a few of them after they cast their ballots in the Democratic Senate primary. I talked to a lot of folks, including one like this Haley Stevens voter in Detroit. Yes, I voted. Like your husband. Did you go for Mr. Abdul El-Sayed, Dr. O'Sahed? I did Haley. Why Haley? First of all, Barack. He, you know, endorsed her. And then I like the fact that, you know, she's not a millionaire. She's one of us. She worked in his administration. Yeah. Yeah. So I like that about her. Even I didn't catch it in real time. For the record, Barack Obama did not endorse either candidate in this Senate primary. Although Stevens does have a lot of prior links to the former president, ads confused a lot of voters there. And now that El Sayed has won this primary, this hard fought primary, Stevens and the Democratic leaders who did back her are voicing support for El Sayed and trying to project unity. But what's it going to take for them to convince voters like the Detroit resident? that I met there to vote for El Sayed in November. Jason Johnson is a professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University and an MS now political analyst. And Amanda Lippman is the co-founder and president of Run for Something. They join me. Now, it's good to see you both. Good to see you. What did you think about the conversation I just had with Abdul El-Sayed professor? It literally sounds like the people and family members that I've talked to in suburban Detroit. There are splits within families, splits within communities, not hostile ones, but there were a lot of people, certainly in the African America, community, the super voters, the 55 and above, who are like, look, Haley Stevens, she has more experience. I'm more comfortable with her. And I think that white voters in the upper part of the state will be more comfortable with her. And then you had other people saying, look, we need change. We have to do something different. Mike Rogers is more the same. We have to do something different. So I think if Abdul El-Sayed can get those couples to say, hey, look, we both want Trump out. We both want to stop him. I think he's got a chance this fall. Is what you heard, Amanda, from him? Five minutes ago, I'm going to speak to the voter that I met there outside the polling place in Northwest Detroit. it's a starting point. He's clearly coming at this with a very different tone than he took in the primary, where he was very sharp elbows, a little bit cocky, a little bit. You know, if you're not with me, you're against me. I thought his tone and your conversation with him was a little more gracious. It was a little bit more about, you know, we're going to welcome people into this movement. It's not about who I'm campaigning with. It's about who I'm campaigning for. And he found a way to work in money out of politics, into your pocket, Medicare for all, I don't know, a half dozen times. he is going to hammer that home in a way that really breaks through it. He is incredibly disciplined and on message on those three particular points. What does it tell you? I was looking at the data about where he performed strongly, in particular in areas with a lot of black and working class voters. Excuse me. Stevens did well. So what does that tell you about, obviously not just Stevens, but about maybe what he missed in the primary election? Well, again, African-American voters are the most practical voters in the Democratic coalition. And oftentimes a decision, you can see this with Barack Obama. You can see this with

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Kamala Harris, oftentimes black voters make the decision on who's going to be best for me and who do I think white folks will vote for, right? And so that was the assumption that Abdul El-Sayed would not do well enough with white voters. If you look at it, the majority didn't vote for him, right? If you look at Haley Stevens, you should look at the third candidate who came in third. So that's where the apprehension comes in. But the overall energy is we want Trump out. The overall energy is whatever we've got to do to keep this seat blue, that's going to end up helping it. And that is so true. You know, I talked to a lot of young people. It was mostly young people who would say, I'm going to sit out if my preferred candidate didn't win. It was certainly not the older voters. Right. Part of this thing was, as I said in the introduction, is that is that. there was so much misinformation and disinformation because of the amount of money that was spent in the campaign, tens of millions of dollars on behalf of Stevens, virtually none in terms of these outside groups for El Sayyad. It was very confusing, including to me as a journalist who went there to cover it when she, I did not catch that in real time, when she said the president has endorsed. What kind of, I asked, I wanted to ask. The candidate, this, I'll say it tonight, but what is he up against? What is this landscape that he's now going into knowing that APEC, the Republicans, they're going to be spending as much, if not more money in this general election? Well, he's got to make sure that the person voters hear about does not reflect the person that they meet at events, that he is everywhere omnipresent in their day-to-day life, especially in the communities that might be a little more skeptical of him. So older black communities, working class communities, Jewish, Michiganders, and making sure that... what they see on TV does not match that reality. Oh, he's talking about going to Shul. Good. I mean, I heard all that. Yeah, exactly. And here's the thing. He already has one message that makes sense, and he has a health care official. I'll also look into some of the data. You now have the insurers in the state of Michigan have gone to the legislator saying, look, we're going to have to increase rates next year, like 9% for group plans and 12% for individual plans. That's 800,000 Michiganers. If you're coming out there saying, hey, Medicare for all and your medical bills are too expensive, I'm going to hear that. more than who you are and what you are and what he said, what you're praying for. He has a message on health care that I think resonates in particular in a state like that. I went back and listened to actually Chris, who seed and I'm keeping warm tonight, I did this incredible podcast with Abdul El-Sayed back in 2018 after he had lost the race for governor and talked to him about his health care plan, not just Medicare for all that he supported nationwide, but he had something called Mishikare that was part of his campaign for governor. And you're so right that he's a doctor. He's never practiced. But he was also a public health official for a very long time. He ran the system in the city of Detroit. And he knows this thing in a way that I have not heard many people talk about when it comes to universal health care. What does that mean to voters to hear somebody speak from that level of sort of subject matter expertise? I think it's going to lend him a ton of credibility. He clearly knows his stuff. He's an excellent, especially science communicator, health care communicator. And I think one of the things he's going to have to his benefit going into the general is. Barack Obama is probably going to endorse him this time around. He's going to have all of those, you know, Michigan elected officials, Gretchen Whitmer, Haley Stevens herself, who have already shown that they are all in to beat Mike Rogers. I think today has really been a model in how you conclude a very rancorous primary. They're going to have to go in front of cameras and say he can win.

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We've got his back. And make sure that what they were saying for the last six months is no longer true. Yeah, there was that statement from Stevens today. There's a unity breakfast. I think that's on Friday, which I think is going to be really interesting to see. I want to read you, Professor, some of the stuff that Republicans are calling him. They're calling him a communist. They're calling him an anti-Semite. Trump today called him a quote-unquote a man of hate. Are these attacks? that are going to land with Michiganders? They're going to land with people who are Republicans already. I don't think they're going to change things, right? Like when you talk about the kinds of people who will pay attention, I saw your interview with Marcus Johnson. I love that kid, right? It's like, as a college professor, those young people, when they see that he was able to beat the system. Because they're the people who are seeing the online misinformation. Yes. They're going to break through it. By the way, Marcus Johnson, forgive me for interrupt you, is from Oakland University, where Abdul El-Sayed is also from. Exactly, exactly. So most of that misinformation is going to come online. It's going to be hitting young. people. They're like, I don't want to hear this. They're going to bat it away like The Matrix. It's not going to matter to them. And for the older voters who are cynical, they've already decided if this is a change election or not. So I don't think that hurts him that much. Before we go, Jocelyn Benson is now the Democratic candidate for governor. She's popular. She's so well known. She absolutely smashed in the primary. Do you think her coat tails will help El Sayed? Can't hurt. They've got to be running a tight coordinated campaign. They've got to be campaigning together. They've got to be aligned. I think their messages really complement each other. But they've got to prove that it's not just in name-only partnership. It's on the ground organizers working together top to bottom. I was so impressed by everybody I met, including Mr. Baxter. I want to shout out again, who runs the elections in Detroit. It was an incredible, incredible operation. I can talk about this all night. I don't want to go back to Michigan for sure. It's good to see both of you. Thank you so much for being here. Jason, Amanda Littman. We'll do this again. All right, everybody, stick around because ahead we're going to talk about Donald Trump and whether or not his personal lawyer should be the nation's attorney general. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is going to weigh in on the pros and the cons coming up next.

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Donald Trump's former attorney, Todd Blanche, is now just one vote away from being confirmed as the Attorney General of the United States of America. This after he appeased Senate Republican holdouts and he passed through the Judiciary Committee just yesterday despite opposition from Democrats. I don't know if you saw it, but before the vote, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon White House made sure to confront his colleagues with just how bad of a nominee Todd Blanche is. Today, I think, is a sad and embarrassing day for this committee. As it looks like on a party-line vote, we are going to advance out of this committee probably the most discreditable person ever to seek the office of Attorney General of the United States. The reasons to vote against him number in the hundreds. Let's start with the Epstein files. where Todd Blanche participated in the cover-up, continues to participate in the cover-up, and is responsible for a massive screw-up of the release of the documents. Next, we get to this crooked slush fund Trump family tax amnesty scam. We've got these two new pieces of paper. One signed only by Todd Blanche, one not signed by anybody, neither of which has any legal effect whatsoever. They are decorative. Let's not forget that there is an ongoing proceeding in Florida in federal court with an open question whether Todd Blanche committed a fraud upon the court. Senator White House joins me now. Senators, good to see you. Thanks for being here. Good to be with you. Thanks so much. Before I get into Todd Blanche, I just want to ask you about Abdul El-Sayed, who is now the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan. If I'm not mistaken, you are a very longtime supporter of Medicare for all, one of his central campaign issues. Are you going to be endorsing him? Forgive me if I've missed it and will you campaign with him? I'll do whatever is best for a Democratic victory. That's our real goal. The one thing I would point out is that as important as the Michigan seat is, we also have races coming up with our candidates either tied or ahead or very close in Maine, in North Carolina, and South Carolina, in Alaska, Ohio, Iowa. Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. We have a wide field. This is a little bit like the first race I won back in 2006, where we picked up 10 seats in a flood against an incompetent president who led America into an unwelcome war. So we have a lot of room to gain, and I intend to work to gain as many of those seats as we can. All right, let's talk about Todd Blanche, because the nomination has advanced to the full Senate now. And Susan Collins says she's not going to vote to confirm him, but that's about it so far in terms of Republican opposition. Do you see anything at all that could block his path to confirmation? Well, you know, Republicans have for a long time purported to care a lot about the Epstein files. And as your clip showed,

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The guy was a disaster with the Epstein files. He's still covering up material that we know he has. Agent's notes supporting FBI 302s from a witness who said Donald Trump, sexually and physically assaulted her when she was about 14 years old. So I don't know how you turn away from that and expect to get away with it. He also screwed up the document production so badly. The victims of Epstein's depravity had their photographs, their addresses, their names all released, many for the first time. So that's a huge burden on him. And if Republicans vote for that, that's a whole new line of attack on them. They now own this guy in November. Not to mention, Senator, forgive me for interrupting you, but the way the Ghislaine Maxwell thing was handled as well. And I just want to ask you about. That was a defense interview, not an investigative interview. And the defendant that they were protecting was Donald Trump. Your criticism over his handling of the Epstein files includes New Mexico's suing Todd Blanche to get the unredacted files. And the claim is that the federal government blocked the state's ability to investigate crimes committed by the disgraced financier in 1993. What can you just, what can Congress do to get these unredacted files to state authorities at this point? Well, that's the New Mexico Attorney General. Right. who has brought the lawsuit against the Department of Justice because he's seeing such unprecedentedly terrible cooperation with the Department of Justice. Usually when a state attorney general, I was our state's attorney general, is pursuing an investigation and seeks assistance from the federal government. That comes willingly. And in this case, the Department of Justice under Todd Blanche has clammed up and is not helping the New Mexico Attorney General with respect to the property. that Epstein owned in New Mexico and whatever misconduct might have taken place out there. So that's yet another aspect of the Todd Blanche cover-up of the Epstein matter. And again, is there anything, Senator, that you all can do to get those files to the authorities there? No, not if the... Attorney General is unwilling to obey the law, not if he's unwilling to respond to our request, and particularly not when we have Republican-controlled House and Senate committees, which could force it, but don't want to because they're terrorized by Trump, and they won't do their jobs properly. So it really is going to take the election to kick some of this loose, and new gavels in new hands in the House and in the Senate. I saw the letter on another topic that you and Senator Heinrich sent about the reflecting pool, and you requested that the office of the Inspector General investigate what employees at the Department of the Interior knew and when they knew it regarding the peeling of the coding, other engineering issues at the memorial. If the Department of Interior employees ended up withholding evidence from Janine Piro's office, if the IG finds anything, is there any kind of accountability that we could see there? Yeah.

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Quite a lot, actually, and particularly in court proceedings. The supposed Vandal, the Olympian, Mr. Hearn, has just filed a new pleading in that case, charging ethics violations. against the prosecutors and against the Department of the Interior, asking for grand jury transcripts, pointing out evidence that they had of his innocence before they charged him and saying very directly that the office, Piro's office, violated ethics rules with respect to the way they talked about him in the press, and with respect to the way they conducted his case in bad faith and for political... motives. So that's very, very rough stuff. And considering where this case is, I think that investigation will continue. And these questions about the Department of Interior's conduct will continue to be pursued. There's a chain of lies. that goes from the individual park police officers at the scene all the way up to the Oval Office. And in that chain, finding out who lied, who was told to lie, all of that stuff is super important for the Department of Interior to get right to discharge what are called Giglio obligations, an obligation that they have to disclose incidences of dishonesty by... officials who may have to testify. It's part of the sort of Brady exculpatory evidence stuff. So they have a real obligation to find out who lied, who knew what, and when they knew it. And Senator Heinrich and I have put the Interior Department Inspector General on the case. I think they recognize that they have to look into this. Well, please do let us know what you find out there. And for anybody who hasn't seen your full remarks at the Judiciary Committee yesterday, I encourage everybody to do that. Senator Sheldon White House is great to see you. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you. You got it. Still to come as calls grow for Republican Congressman Max Miller to step down. I'm going to speak to the Democrat that is challenging him for his house seat. That's next. If you're a parent and want to help set up your child for success, then I-Excel is right for your family. As an effective and affordable online learning program, I-Excel covers math, language arts, science, and social studies using interactive practice problems for kids from pre-K to 12th grade. Listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IExel membership when they sign up today at Iexel.com slash 20. Visit Iexel.com slash 20 to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. You know, recommendations can be great. Maybe someone recommended this podcast, and here you are. But home projects are different. If a podcast isn't your thing, you lose a few minutes. If you hire your cousin's neighbor to mount your TV, you might end up with a lopsided screen and wall damage.

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Maybe I know a guy just isn't enough for your home. That's why Thumbtack works. It matches you with top-rated local pros with photos, reviews, and credentials all in one place. For your next home project, try Thumbtack. Hire the right pro today. Spring nights can't decide if they're hot or cold, and neither can you two. The pod by eight sleep is a smart matches cover with dual temperature zones, so one side of the bed stays cool, while the other stays warm. Autopilot adjusts automatically as you sleep, and it's clinically proven to boost deep sleep by 27%. Better sleep for both of you, no compromise and even. Try the pod by eight sleep at eightsleep.com. Tonight, the embattled Republican Congressman Max Miller has missed the first of two different deadlines to withdraw his re-election bid. As he faces those allegations of domestic violence, Miller has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but the public calls for him to drop out continue to grow louder. Republican leaders are making it clear that they are in no rush, though, to force Miller out. We have to allow this process to play out. It is a family matter, and I just, I don't have any observations beyond that. I hope he's able to work it out. I feel bad at this world. Miller, for his part, says he's not going anywhere. People have asked me, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline? And my answer to you, Jake, is no. And I can tell you why. In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day. And people in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the president of the United States. But guess what? He stayed in and he was resilient. The fact is that Miller has got a slim lead in a district that Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024, and the clock is ticking for Republicans to get him out of there. And if he does not withdraw by Monday, they will be stuck with him. Brian Poindexter is running as a Democrat against Max Miller in Ohio's 7th Congressional District, and he joins us now. Brian, I want to start with these allegations against Miller made by his ex-wife. Also, the daughter of sitting Republican Senator Bernie Moreno. This is what Moreno had to say earlier today about the allegations that Miller potentially abused his two-year-old daughter, Moreno's granddaughter. Watch this.

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The best part of my day is when I start FaceTime. She's a sweet little girl. I can't even express to you what it feels like to have her in my life. I just wish her dad felt this way. It's not news to you that Moreno has called on Miller to resign. What do you think? What are voters in the district telling you? Well, first off, thanks for having me on. You know, hearing that clip of Bernie Moreno, you know, I myself am a father of two daughters. And I can hear the pain in his voice. So he's certainly, you know, he's certainly in a bad place right now. But, yeah, you know, these allegations, I didn't get into this race because of these allegations. I got in this race because Max Miller's policies that he supports have been terrible for the working families in our district. And I want to show people a different way, you know, a way where we put workers first for a change in this country. And I'm running to do just that. I know you can get in it for this reason, but this is very, very serious stuff. And Moreno, you know, has accused Miller of refusing to literally return his granddaughter's... He says it's a little blue bunny, like a stuffed animal in a custody exchange, and held it hostage for 48 hours. And Miller responded just now, this past hour on X, and he posted all these screenshots of text messages that are explaining the transfer of his daughter's blue bunny, saying she got it back in 14 hours. When you see this stuff, What does it say about the integrity of the person that you're running against? And what voters in your district should feel? Well, I've made the statement that, you know, if these allegations prove to be true, Max Miller shouldn't be worried about a congressional seat. He should be worried about jail time. And it just shows a history of repeated behavior that has been, you know, questionable at best. And I think the voters in Ohio 7th and a lot of the reactions I'm getting from voters here in Ohio 7th is that they want reasonable people holding these positions. You know, I'm running to show a different way. You know, I want to bring people together. And, you know, I don't care if it's if you're a Republican, independent, or a Democrat in this district. If you work for a living, you're having a really hard time. because of the policies Max Miller has supported. And that's what got us in this race. And whether he stays in the race or whether they replace them, it doesn't matter to me. We are going to run and continue to run on our campaign of bringing more people together to fight for all of us in this district. I think that the reason that we continue to focus on is just the severity of the allegations, you know, against him. And over and over again, we continue to hear other Republicans that are speaking out against it. It's a district that has been, a very, very reliable seat for Republicans. Donald Trump won the district by 11 percentage points in 2024. Talk more. I understand that this has taken up a lot of the oxygen and the race and for a good reason, but talk more about what you believe makes you the good candidate to flip the seat to blue come November as we watch this happen in other parts of the country right now.

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Well, yeah, this is a district that Donald Trump won by 11 points last cycle. But it's also a seat that Sherrod Brown wins by 18 points. Sorry, he won in 2018, sorry. And that's what I think what I bring to this race is, you know, I'm a 19-year member of Iron Workers Local 17, a hardworking guy, blue-collar worker. And... People have forgotten the hardworking people that represent District 7 here in Ohio. And I want to remind them who we are, the people in Washington. I want to remind workers that we have power when we stand together. And that's really what this campaign is about. And it's not really a Democrat versus Republican issue here in this district. It's more of an issue of who's going to best represent workers. And that's where I'm strong. And that's where people are really responding. to the message. And, you know, you can learn more about our message if you go to our website at Pointexter for Congress.com. Read more about us. And, you know, if you want to jump in, I don't care what your party label is next to you. Jump in and help and we can make real change for people like us. Brian Poindexter, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, everybody, stay tuned because in just a few minutes, Maryland Governor Wes Moore will be on the briefing. And we'll be right back after a short break.

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Hey, I got to tell you guys about something coming up just next month. MS now is heading south for Together in Texas. We the People 2026. Saturday, September 26, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to be there. Scan the QR code on your screen right now. Go to MS. dot now slash together to buy your tickets. Hang out with everybody that you are looking at right there on your screen. And until then, I will be right back here on Saturday morning and Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific for another edition of my new show. Connect with Jacob Soberoff. That is all in on this Wednesday night. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. One thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. For decades, Angie's helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com.