Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) on Monday said President Trump's MAGA movement is “eating itself” after conservative commentator Tucker Carlson praised the progressive and sharply criticized his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
El-Sayed was asked on CNN's “OutFront” about Carlson's remarks earlier this month, when the former Fox News host said he “wouldn't vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint” and boosted El-Sayed's “Trumpian” campaign. “Look, Tucker and I don't agree on much, but we definitely agree on what he just said,” El-Sayed told host Erin Burnett. “I think what you're seeing here is MAGA eating itself.”
He argued that some backers of Trump's “America First” agenda are turning on Republicans they see as abandoning its core tenets, especially on foreign policy as the U.S. war with Iran nears its seventh month. “Those who believe in the ideas — the idea that we should have America first, that we shouldn't go to wars that we shouldn't be fighting, those who believe in just basic principles,” El-Sayed said.
El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.) in the Democratic primary for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D), accused Rogers of shifting positions to stay in Trump's good graces. “Folks are turning on people like Mike Rogers because Mike Rogers was a neocon, and then he decried Donald Trump when Donald Trump came to power,” he continued. “Now, he's willing to do whatever Donald Trump tells him to do, so long as Donald Trump is happy with him.”
Rogers, who is endorsed by Trump, recently called for a swift end to the U.S. war in Iran after previously backing the president's handling of the conflict. His campaign cited the economic toll of the war, including surging fuel prices tied to Tehran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The shift comes as the race tightens; recent polling shows Rogers faces a narrowing path against El-Sayed.
El-Sayed stressed that he does not view Carlson, a former Trump ally, as formally endorsing his campaign, but rather offering a “nonendorsement for Mike Rogers” or “an anti-endorsement” against his GOP opponent. “It's less about me. It's more about Mike Rogers, and it's more about recognizing that I am going to be principled — whatever it takes,” he said.
The candidates will face off in November for the Senate seat, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as a “toss-up.” The contest is one of a handful that will determine control of the Senate, and both parties are pouring resources into the state. National Republicans have seized on El-Sayed's progressive record, while Democrats are banking on his grassroots appeal and the GOP's internal divisions.
Carlson's comments have amplified those divisions. His criticism of Rogers as insufficiently loyal to Trump's agenda echoes similar attacks from other MAGA figures against Republican candidates they deem out of step. As the war in Iran drags on and fuel prices climb, the party's foreign policy fissures are becoming harder to contain.
For El-Sayed, the episode is a chance to cast himself as the authentic anti-war candidate, even as he disagrees with Carlson on most issues. “Tucker and I don't agree on much,” he repeated, “but we definitely agree on what he just said.”
