Memorandum
- From
- Derek Weston via fox - Most Popular
- Date
- Filed
- Politics·4 min to read
- Re
Michigan Senate nominee El-Sayed criticized US society in resurfaced podcast remarks
ReMichigan Senate nominee El-Sayed criticized US society in resurfaced podcast remarks
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed described Americans as "deeply atomized" and praised community life abroad in a resurfaced podcast, adding to a series of critical comments about US society and institutions.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said Americans are "desperate to feel something" and "deeply atomized" while praising the sense of community he experienced during childhood stays in Egypt, according to a podcast interview from late October 2025 that has resurfaced amid his Senate campaign.
Asked what Americans could gain from life "back home," El-Sayed answered with one word: "Community." He argued that connections offered through phones and social media are "not community," and contrasted American life with societies like Egypt, where "you're constantly enveloped in other people's humanity." He called the experience "a beautiful thing" and said he wished Americans had more of it.
The remarks are not the first time El-Sayed has offered pointed criticism of American society. During a 2019 University of Michigan School of Public Health commencement address, he said Detroit residents had been "directly and purposely marginalized by every level of government" in "a city and a state and a country that has baked racism into its foundation." Later in that speech, discussing the Flint water crisis and the political climate, he said he had watched American politics "revert to a strain of white supremacy and racism I never thought we'd go back to."
In the podcast, El-Sayed recounted how his parents would "ship me off to Egypt in the summers" so he would know his father's language and culture, sometimes spending roughly four months with his working-class extended family in the one-bedroom apartment where his father grew up. He said those experiences taught him something about "the human condition" that can be harder to encounter in American life, calling the experience "euphoric" and saying exposure to other people's lives "softens or should soften your heart."
He also contrasted weddings "back home" as a "celebration of humanity" with social media, which he described as an attempt to recreate that experience through "some huge corporation that's monetizing your eyeballs and your eardrums." He said that type of human connection "can't" be replaced and called it "the best of living."
El-Sayed argued Americans have been "oscillating between that instinct and the instinct to chase money," blaming the pursuit of wealth by a small number of people for problems ranging from the healthcare system to U.S. military spending abroad. "At some point I'd rather live in community where people have the basic things they need than be in a country where a few people get to be billionaires and the rest of us get to suffer," he said.
The comments stand in tension with the Michigan-centered image El-Sayed has presented at times, describing himself as the quintessential "Michigan man." In other recently resurfaced recordings, he said he "hates" Mackinac Island, questioned elements of football culture by linking its ethos to historical narratives of slavery and oppression, and argued Americans should find another way to celebrate the Fourth of July. In a 2021 Substack post, he also said "toxic masculinity" was "at the heart of America's most popular sport."
His campaign has pushed back on the resurfaced material, telling CNN that cherry-picked comments from old podcasts do not reflect his beliefs today and noting that El-Sayed played football and has publicly celebrated the Fourth of July.
