NBC’s Kristen Welker Repeatedly Asks Rahm Emanuel If He’ll Support Dem Socialist El-Sayed

Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker wouldn’t let the subject go when Democratic strategist Rahm Emanuel danced around whether he supported democratic socialist Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Senate race on Sunday morning.

Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama, said he wasn’t comfortable with El-Sayed calling Israel’s campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” which prompted Welker’s line of questioning.

“If you’re going to use that term, then we gotta to have a conversation about Sudan. We gotta have a conversation about Ukraine. We gotta have a conversation about the Armenians. We gotta have a conversation about what happened in Cambodia. Having one conversation about one country means you are politicizing a term that has huge and historic moral obligations,” Emanuel said.

“Let me ask you this, because given El-Sayed’s position, given how you’re saying how complex this issue is, will you endorse Abdul El-Sayed?” Welker asked.

“Yeah, it’s a complex issue,” Emanuel said, and Welker repeated, “Will you endorse Abdul El-Sayed? Do you support him given that position?”

EMANUEL: We have massive disagreements. I support the Democrat party. I support the Democratic candidate. I’ll be going to Michigan again, I’ve been there repeatedly to help the gubernatorial candidate. I support the Democratic party position, because it happens to come up as the Supreme Court Justice Alito said he’s thinking about retiring, and I’m not playing around anymore with what they did under President Obama on the Supreme Court or what this Supreme Court did giving President Trump a get out of jail card as it relates to all the corruption which is why you’re seeing this. So the Supreme Court —

WELKER: But just to be clear do you—

EMANUEL: I just said it, I will support —

WELKER: Do you support Abdul El-Sayed?

EMANUEL: My support’s not import— I said yes. My support’s not important. It’s the Michigan voters’s support that’s important. And he needs to work on that and earn their vote.

Watch the clip above via NBC News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!