How do you feel as we look at this, Iman? How do you feel about what you saw last night?

Yeah, the debate I saw last night didn't really change my opinion much.

I'm a student, so I sort of love learning about stuff like nuances of U.S. foreign trade policy, health care proposals.

But I'll be honest, call me a simple guy.

There's certain qualifications that the Senate candidates have to pass for me to consider voting for them.

Abdul was talking about playing MAGA bingo.

Let's play Abdul bingo for a second.

I think that, frankly, the sort of

What was your feeling after you heard his answer? And what have you thought about since that moment?

Well, Katie, thank you for having me on.

I mean, it was an answer to a question that I didn't ask.

And to someone who says he stands for democratic movements, to then a few weeks later not stand for the only democracy in the Middle East, and to even urge that the comparison between Israel and Iran is valid.

I mean, you got a country that has murdered tens of thousands of people in such a short span of time.

They have American blood on their hands.

They have Persian blood on their hands.

Can you talk more about your family and their experience with the IRGC and why so many Iranian Americans are angry about El Sayed's response and seemingly, at a minimum, lack of moral clarity?

Thank you.

It says Michigan Persians.

But I do have a question, Abdul.

My cousin was hunted in the streets of Iran by the IRGC because her hijab wasn't on right.

My uncle was sentenced to die, received 50 lashings by Ali Khamenei's government, and The terror that we've experienced is insurmountable.

And you can imagine our surprise as Persians, our sadness when we heard you, Abdul, a leaked audio tape of you saying that you didn't want to comment on Supreme Leader Khamenei's death and that people in Dearborn were sad when he died.

And I just have a simple question, Abdul.

What is it about his campaign that attracts certain elements of the undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Michigan, sir?

Tell us what's going on with that situation.

Yeah, that honestly, one of the most surprising developments, you know, the butterfly effect is a crazy thing.

One day you'll ask a Senate candidate, you know, a pretty basic question.

And then two days later, your grandmother is getting random messages from strangers getting doxxed on the Internet.

It's like, how did we get here? What is going on? And.

Yeah, I mean, I've gotten threats.

My family's gotten threats, gotten harassed.

So what is your particular message for both of those groups?

Uh, when it comes back to that exchange that you had with him and it going viral, what was it about his response, um, that, that didn't resonate with you or, or maybe did? Tell us about that.

Yeah, well, his response really, I, I think it was, it was a very brutal political calculation, and when I'm talking about lives of people I love, and I receive some sort of, you know, corporate PR sort of washed, sanitized response, it's like, "What are we even doing here?" It, it really just bothers me, obviously being, uh, very passionate about this.

He's trying to sort of maintain, at least in my perception, maintain support from his mon ra- most radical base and also try to, you know, appease me with a half answer.

You know, saying something like, "I support freedom and democracy in Iran," sure.

That, that's a totally valid thing to say.

It's something I agree with, but it's like, okay, I asked you to be a little bit more specific, right? Are you going to condemn the people that have been preventing us from having freedom and democracy? Are you going to disavow your previous silence on the w- question of freedom or democracy? And he wasn't able to do any of that.

So I could stand here and say, "Yeah, I support freedom and democracy in, you know, all countries in the world.

Any, uh, final words, Imanjon, before we let you go?