On the Ground in Michigan with Abdul El-Sayed

**Jon Favreau** (0:19)
Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.

**Tommy Vietor** (0:22)
And I'm Tommy Vietor. Hello from Detroit, Michigan. How are you doing?

**Jon Favreau** (0:25)
Hello. How's it going there? What are you doing there?

**Tommy Vietor** (0:28)
I am, I came out to see Michigan Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, on the campaign trail, interviewed him last night in Detroit after a town hall event. As you guys know, as the listeners know, this is one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the country. The Democrats just had a bruising primary that pitted progressives against the establishment, APEC in Israel versus with the left's position on a bunch of foreign policy issues. Now, Republicans are propping up Mike Rogers, who is the conservative national security official from a different era of Republican politics.
This is going to be a knife fight between now and election day. I want to get out here, get on the ground and see what it looked like.

**Jon Favreau** (1:12)
Nice. How was it? We can get to Abdul, but what did you see on the ground?

**Tommy Vietor** (1:18)
It was a very quick trip. In Tommy's fantasy version of this trip, I went to Detroit last night and then event in Lansing today, and then tailgated with Abdul before the Michigan football game on Saturday.

**Jon Favreau** (1:31)
That would have been fun.

**Tommy Vietor** (1:32)
I know, but you'll be surprised to learn that didn't fly with Hannah.

**Zach Farrell** (1:36)
The three-year-old and the two-year-old at home.

**Tommy Vietor** (1:38)
Yeah, a little bit going on. It was a quick trip, flew out 6 a.m. Thursday, landed in Detroit. Then we went to Wayne County Community College, where Abdul was holding his town hall meeting. We interviewed a bunch of voters coming in, got to hang out with Abdul for a bit off the record before the event, watched him speak, and he did a Q&A, a gaggle with press, and then he sat down with us for an interview before he then did a CNN hit. It was a very long day for him.
Here's a quick taste of what we heard, what we saw, what the ground was like, what Abdul's event, what the interview was like. Watch this, and then Jon and I are going to talk about impressions from the event, the stakes in the election, the issues that are getting fought, and what the path looks like going forward for Abdul. We are at the Wayne County Community College in Detroit, Michigan. We're here to see Abdul El-Sayed. He's doing a It Shouldn't Be This Hard town hall meeting tour.

**Abdul El-Sayed** (2:27)
Democracy is supposed to be about sharing in a conversation about two things. Who are we and who do we want to be? Part of my job is not just to be like, all right, here's what's popular in the poll.
It's not just to do what's popular, it's to make popular what's right. At the end of the day, people are good, really. I think sometimes we're afraid of our own shadow.
We assume now people aren't going to like it. We shouldn't be talking about immigration. Yes, we should.

**Eileen McDonald** (2:54)
What are you afraid of?

**Jon Favreau** (2:55)
Oh, wow. What did some of the voters say?

**Tommy Vietor** (3:00)
So the voters, well, let me tell you guys first about, let's preview the Abdul piece of this just so folks know, and I'll talk about the voters. In the interview, Abdul and I talk about the difference between the questions he got from voters in the town hall and then the media. You'll be surprised to learn that the voters were not asking about Twitch streamers, but the press corps was, and Hassan Piker. We talked about what Mike Rogers and Ted Cruz had just said about Abdul in Dallas.
I'm sure you saw some person scream, shoot him, we'll play those comments for you guys in a bit.
I asked him about his reflections on 9-11, because we're talking on the 10th, and not just the fear of that day, but being a Muslim in America in that period after. Then I asked him about his image, because you and I know him as our really smart doctor buddy, and a nerd, and now there's a lot more bro coming out of that campaign. So I asked him about how we thought about that. The kind of him kind of getting the Tucker Carlson endorsement. We talked about public health. This is about 20 minutes and worth your time. Most of the voters we talked to were big Abdul fans. Not a lot of undecideds were turning out at this event. But two people that really stand out to me, one was a woman who you'll hear from in the episode, who actually knew Audie Barkin. Favreau was a friend of ours. She's an unbelievably brave health care activist. And she talked about getting arrested with Audie and how Abdul's commitment to Medicare for All and health care was what inspired her to be a part of the campaign. And then I talked to this older gentleman, he's 82 years old, and had worked on RFK the Good Ones campaign.