So how is that going to work? How are you going to deliver on your promises? You're calling the president unserious fool that he is.

Well, let's talk about how he is an unserious fool.

Think about this war in Iran that every single president had resisted fighting because, of course, it was a dumb idea because there's this place called the Strait of Hormuz that everybody could have told you would have been a choke point on energy.

He does this in a moment when energy is single-handedly upholding the S&P 500 because of the power of AI corporations building data centers right now, which we also have to start addressing because, of course, that's run amok.

Let's talk about the foolishness of a tariff war with Canada.

Canada.

I mean, I'm from Michigan.

So that was obviously during the primary, he was endorsing your opponent, but in what way, or you still think you'll be dangerous to Chuck Schumer?

I would love to hear you talk a little bit more about when you talk about targeted tariffs, are you talking about targeting them by country, by good? Yeah, just explain a little bit more about what your ideal tariff policy might look like.

Yeah, Molly.

Well, first, I have to say that my family would not have come to America, certainly would not have come to Detroit, but for the automotive industry.

My father worked many long years at GM helping to design some of their flagship automobiles.

And my mom was a manufacturing engineer.

She currently is the president of SAE.

So, automotive engineering is something that runs in my blood.

What sort of policy decisions do you think would help protect domestic automakers in the global market as Chinese automakers are projected to increasingly gain market share?

But it made me wonder, because I've known you for a while, and this whole perception of you that has developed over the campaign, do you see yourself as Hurricane Abdul coming to Washington? How do you see yourself?

There is this expectation for decorum.

that for whatever reason, Democrats seem to want to keep up.

And I think it's because all of us, all of us came up watching the West Wing.

And then Donald Trump rolls in and is the most unserious fool.

And then we're still out here trying to be like, well, he doesn't fit into an episode of the West Wing.

And I think there is a responsibility that we have to engage with him as the unserious fool that he is.

And so what is your top priority as Senator over the next two years in terms of actually getting something done for the people

Do you see this as the party should be focused laserly on affordability and cost of living, or do you think it should be more about progressive policies?

Well, I want to think about what progressive policies are, right? If you're saying we should stand up to corporations and oligarchy, that's about making life affordable.

Everybody in this audience right now has a cell phone, probably made by one of two carriers.

Everybody here has probably one of three carriers that give you operability on that cell phone.

That is corporate power to the level that we have not seen in this country for a very long time.

Think about Medicare for All.

It's just saying that everybody should have guaranteed health insurance without having to worry about how much they got to pay on the back end.

You know, do you think that leaders have a responsibility to challenge the extremist views in their own religion, especially considering you're the first Muslim senator of the United States?

What is your message now that you've won this election to Jewish voters in the state of Michigan and, frankly, national voters who've been watching you very closely and want to know what you will do to protect them in this era of anti-Semitism.

Yeah.

You know, I grew up, I was really privileged to grow up in a community where about 40% of my high school class was Jewish.

I grew up going to synagogue, going to Seder, going to bar and bat mitzvahs growing up.

I have so much respect for the Jewish faith and Jewish contributions to American life.

I also know what it's like to be discriminated against for how I pray.

And I want an America where nobody is discriminated against under our constitution.

So what kind of change do you think the Democrats should focus on within the party? And also, what is the first thing that they should actually do once they take office?

I mean, that part is rough, but

like we, we did a lot to, to just try to shade them away from it.

Um, try to keep them, you know, we didn't turn on the TV in the house like while they were awake basically.

Um, so you know I hope this is something that they read about in the history books and like all credit to my wife like she was the rock through the whole thing and you know their experience was their experience was one where You know, they knew it was happening, but it was just like kind of some noise in the background.

And that's how we wanted it to be.

For me, look, you know, I know this is, I know this is, this is what happens.

And frankly, like hearing from other folks whose kids were watching how painful that was, I was like, hey, this is the middle of the story, right? Just wait till the end of the story.

You're now their senator.

What about investigations? What about using the subpoena power to investigate this president and this administration? How much time should Democrats in the Senate focus on that?

Well, the issue is not political retribution.

The issue is, can we address the challenges that people face in their lives? One big challenge that we had over the summer is that people were dodging lettuce in my state because we had a cyclosporiasis outbreak.

Now, I'm a public health physician and somebody who spent my career focused on public health, led health departments in the city of Detroit and Wayne County.

There's a reason why that happened.

It's because they dozed away the Food and Drug Administration's key role when it came to inspecting our food supply.

And we couldn't even count the number of cases because of the dozing of key personnel at the CDC.

Does that, as you think about what kind of senator you want to be and in terms of where you're going to be on the ideological spectrum coming from a purple state like Michigan, what lesson do you draw from that? It feels like voters have candidates and politicians on a very short leash.

And tell me something that is like Catholicism or Judaism specific to Islam?

You know, there is this notion of speak the truth, even if it be against yourself.

And I try to be like radically honest.

You know, for me, I've always tried to find the, incoherence of a thing to try and see it and look at it.

And I think I bring that to my politics every single day.

What are the inconsistencies that we hide from in our politics? What are the places where we're not quite consistent with what we say we want to do? Let's talk about those things.

And that honesty, I think, is really, really important.

And I just want you to tell me how you're going to pay for

As for the Democratic nominee, he said he'd rather talk about other things, not, in his words, two folks who aren't here right now, meaning Stevens and Rogers.

At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stevens.

See what I'm saying? I think about the, like I said, the 9,999,998 people who are not those two.

Because you know what? I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all.

A short time ago, Abdul El-Sayed weighed in on MSNOW.

This race was never about me.

It was never even about Mike Rodgers.

It's certainly not about Haley Stevens.

What is the most important issue that you hear about from Michigan voters in this campaign? Pick one.

I think right now we are barreling toward a world where the most important issue I hear about every day is AI.

Tell me about that.

It comes in two different ways.

One is students saying, so I just took $60,000 in loans and the job that I was supposed to have on the back end doesn't exist anymore or might not exist in 10 years.

Or it's folks in rural communities who say, they're trying to put a data center in my backyard.

I already can't afford my utilities and I'm worried about what it's going to mean for our water.

He refuses to even acknowledge that Israel has the right to exist.

How do you decide when to punch back and when to ignore the attacks?

For me, it's not about defending me.

It's about defending all the folks who are struggling because of the failure of this governance and this absurd approach that we've seen to it from the president, from JD Vance, from Mike Rogers.

And so I just try to focus on the substance of the issue.

They're gonna attack me.

I've been me my whole life.

I know that there's always a small number of very small people who bark very loudly and think that America is small like them.

What do you what do you want a kid in Dearborn to take from that night?

But is this something that you're seeing bubble up as well? I'm curious from your on the ground perspective.

Yeah, I hear it almost every town hall I do.

And it touches on these affordability questions in a pretty big way.

You know, you think about the things that are increasing in price for people, utilities is a big one.

And then you think about chaos and the ability to control what's happening in your community, the ability to do anything about those prices.

Data centers and AI hit at both of those issues in a big way.

You've got these huge corporations based out of California where billionaires are getting to control a technology that's on the cusp of running rampant and loose, where everybody's saying that this could potentially cause existential crises for humanity.

It's not like you're sitting on an illiquid, you know, depreciated asset.

Like, are you in a group chat? Are you sending each other memes? Is he liking your Instagram stories? Like, how deep does this bromance go, if at all?

Or am I projecting? I met him after I ran for governor back in 2018.

And he was just getting into politics.

And I had just run this governor's race and wasn't successful.

But I got to see him, you know, and obviously ran.

He's an extremely gifted communicator and ran a race that really inspired people around things.

You know, it's funny because The thing that you get with me is I try to be good faith in every interaction.

You know,

What does that mean?

Yeah.

So let's just ask ourselves, like, what should an immigration system do, right? I believe that we have to have a safe and secure border.

That's not ICE.

That's Customs and Border Protection.

I think that we need to make sure that we are solidifying our border.

We know who comes in and who goes.

And so how does one promote change for the Cuban people right now? How do you think about that?

I just wish every person in the world could have heard you speak today.

What was that like? So this was 2007.

This was six years after 9-11.

That happens when I'm a junior in high school.

You would have been a sophomore or junior.

Yes.

And you remember the earth-shattering experience of that, watching your whole world get turned upside down.

what is a tariff? What are

And before I ask you about the race, I just want to know, like, how are you doing? That sounds like a lot.

It's a lot, but I'm not doing this to defend myself.

I've been me my whole life.

I know what comes with the territory.

And I think for a lot of folks, they are newly being introduced to what happens when you step into the public like this.

But I've been me my whole life.

I've always known that, unfortunately, there is going to be some small number of people with very small minds and very big mouths who are going to just try and distract folks about how I pray or the color of my skin or what my name is.

And so I'm going to say what he wants me to say.

And I'm just curious as to what you see as the path to victory next week.

Well, I think we have a unique opportunity here in terms of turnout.

My primary was interesting in the way that we got outspent 11 to 1.

And we ended up winning the primary very closely, but we did it without having won the traditional population centers of Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County.

But the reason we were able to do that is because we built a coalition that really was statewide.

I think we've got an opportunity in this race to do a couple of things.

Number one, really turn out the vote among communities that ought to be part of a democratic base, the black community, Arab and Muslim community, and young people, right? That's really where we've had so much energy among young people.

Well, I'm grateful

Are data centers worth it for ratepayers?

At this point, no, because there's no real protections and they're going to get what they need.

You're talking about, you just think about this.

If you're DTE, all of a sudden, these data centers are some of your biggest customers.

So who do you service first? And I don't know if you remember this from college, Jane, but we lose our power quite a bit.

I mean, on average, I lose my power two or three times a year for like three to four days at a time.

And so you think about where we are right now, we're paying some of the highest rates in the country.

When you talk to Muslim voters in Dearborn and elsewhere now, what are they saying about Trump?

Why are you not further ahead, do you think, like other Democrats across the country?

Well, every state's different.

Our states are always really, our races are really quite close.

There's also a historic amount of money being spent here, right? More money spent against me in a primary than has ever been spent against any candidate in history in a primary.

We're going to continue to chase every vote, and we feel good about the results.

How has your conversation with the black community evolved over the course of this race?

Well, as you know, Reverend, my relationship with the black community doesn't just start because I started to run for office.

It goes back to 2015 when I had the privilege of working alongside and with black Detroiters to rebuild Detroit's health department after it had been shut down because of emergency management.

That same exact system of emergency management, while Mike Rogers was in the state Senate way back in the 1990s, He was architecting legislation that became the prototype for that exact emergency management, which stripped away local control from dozens of local communities, predominantly black communities.

So I've been working in the community for some time, but you've never finished having the conversation.

You know, if I get elected, God willing, I'm going to continue to have that conversation about how to lead with and for black communities.

But here's the thing.

As Democrats make their final pitch for change nationwide and on Capitol Hill, how do they reassure voters that those needs will be addressed if they're given more power next week?

I guess how do you get beyond that? And what do you think of it?

I'll be honest with you.

I understand.

I've worked in the city of Detroit.

You walk into one of these party stores, you walk into a gas station, and you've got somebody who looks like me behind bulletproof glass, and you look at the way that they're treating the customers.

That's deeply inappropriate.

It's wrong.

I guess, how does that make you feel about the intervals that you may have made, despite all of the money spent against you, despite the historic things that you were kind of being blamed for that you had nothing to do with? I don't remember you owning a store in Detroit.

Would you tell us if there's any federal legislation that you think should be in place around firearms?

Look, I think there are some obvious things.

The Second Amendment, it guarantees the right to bear arms, but it doesn't mean any gun for anyone, anywhere, anytime.

That was never the intent of the framers of the Constitution.

So the question that we have to start asking ourselves is, all right, what are the things that we can do to make sure that somebody who gets access to a firearm isn't intent to use it to kill other people? And that means that maybe some guns might not be the best option.

And we got to be really thoughtful about whether or not they need to continue to be for sale, the guns that are designed to kill a lot of people very quickly.

Then you think about universal background checks, the idea that we should just know who's getting a gun and what circumstances are getting them in.

And I wonder if there was anything that you'd like voters to know about your experience and about what they may see on your resume if they were expecting to see longer terms with the work that you have done.

I want to give you a chance to respond to that deeper veiled point he's making.

Yeah, look, people like JD Vance think America is too small for some of us.

I think America is big enough.

I think America has been big enough to include people like JD Vance, to include people like me, to include people whose families came here and immigrated here and built a life here.

or whose forefathers came here or whose people were here before anybody else showed up or people whose ancestors were brought here despite themselves.

I think America is big enough for all of us.

His view of America is small.

Can you talk me through how you think about the information wars a little bit?

I want to give you a chance to respond to that deeper veiled point he's making.

Yeah, look, people like JD Vance think America is too small for some of us.

I think America is big enough.

I think America has been big enough to include people like JD Vance, to include people like me, to include people whose families came here and immigrated here and built a life here.

or whose forefathers came here or whose people were here before anybody else showed up or people whose ancestors were brought here despite themselves.

I think America is big enough for all of us.

His view of America is small.

Can you talk me through how you think about the information wars a little bit?

What's your critique? What do you think went wrong and why? I think, you know, my critique.

I think my viewers know my critique.

Like I just like that.

Obviously he was dealing in a different time.

It was 2009 through 2016.

He literally came into office inheriting the worst financial crisis in nearly a century.

He decided that he wanted to do healthcare, which was like an incredibly bold decision in that time, right? He could have just done the recovery and people would have been like, yeah, no, he inherited that, but he decided to, that was bold.

You know what I mean?