Democratic Michigan Senate Candidate Dr. El-Sayed Addresses Past Obama Criticism, Jewish Safety In Meet The Press Interview

In a wide-ranging interview, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed sat down for an exclusive with Meet The Press host Kristen Welker which aired this morning. El–Sayed was asked about past criticisms of former President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, and his relationship with the Jewish community.

The former two-term president is set to campaign with El-Sayed later in October.

Welker pointed to comments made by El-Sayed in 2012 about Obama shortly after Obama’s reelection, where El-Sayed wrote about Obama’s “list of failures”. Welker asked if he still maintained those views.

“You wrote, quote, ‘Obama was not the right choice. He just wasn’t the wrong one. This leader has perpetrated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on’ “.

“Do you still see President Obama’s presidency as a failure?”, Welker asked.

“Well, we’ve lived through two Trump terms now”, El-Sayed answered.

“Look, I know that President Obama was handed a really difficult set of circumstances, and he did his best.” El-Sayed then compared his father with Obama, saying he could not be where he is today without his father or the former president.

“I wouldn’t have my life but for my dad’s efforts. I’m so grateful for him at the same time, there’s a lot of things about my dad I would do differently, right? And it’s because when you intensely appreciate somebody who’s done so much to make something that you’re doing possible, you’re both gonna see the best of them and you’re also going to see the thing that you’d want to change”.

“I can’t say how much I appreciate President Obama”, he added.

In January 2020 during comments at a University of Chicago Institute of Politics event, El-Sayed warned Democrats not to repeat “the same mistakes of the past eight years under Barack Obama.”

“We are not, as a country, better off eight years after Obama was elected in 2008 than we were when he was elected. And I say this as somebody who loves him deeply,” he said.

“I appreciate the fact that we don’t give him credit for what he did for the economy in the short term. But the structure of the economy did not change under Barack Obama,” he said, arguing that the president’s oversights helped create the political environment that gave rise to Republican President Trump.

However, El-Sayed’s explanation of his assessment of Obama’s terms in office while reaffirming his affinity for him in the Meet The Press piece could help ease the minds of Black voters in Michigan, a group El-Sayed has struggled to get firmly in his camp, just like many progressives traditionally have across the country.

The former president will headline a high-profile campaign rally alongside El-Sayed in Detroit on October 24, 2026. The event is timed for the first day of Michigan’s in-person early voting period and will also feature Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson.

Jewish Relations

El-Sayed, who is Muslim, has also faced lingering questions about his relationship with and views of the Jewish community. El-Sayed’s critics have highlighted his progressive positions, including opposition to certain military aid to Israel, which has strained his relationship with parts of the mainstream Jewish electorate in Michigan.

At a prior event with Jewish supporters, El-Sayed stated that he struggles with the definition of a Jewish state, arguing that self-determination for one group should not suppress another. The comments added to Jewish and Democrats’ anxiety over El-Sayed’s relationship with Jewish voters–a group he can hardly afford to lose to his Republican opponent Mike Rogers: Polls show the race between the two essentially tied.

Rogers has accused El-Sayed of holding an adversarial view toward Israel.

“In the aftermath of an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March, you condemned the attack, but you said hurt people hurt people. You later apologized for those comments. What is your message to Jewish voters who still have reservations even after hearing your apology?, Welker asked.

“Well my commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to my own kids”, El Sayed answered. He then referenced Muslim safety.

“And we need to be able to know that we can go to our schools, that we can go to our places of worship, and that nobody is going to attack and that we are invested in making sure that folks are safe”.

El-Sayed then commented on religious discrimination.

“I know what it’s like to be discriminated against for how I pray”.

“I understand that very well, and I don’t want anybody to face that in the United States of America, whether they’re being discriminated against because they’re Jewish, or Sikh, or Hindu, or Muslim, or Christian”, he added.