Democratic Candidate Responds to Tucker Carlson’s Praise by Saying MAGA Is ‘Eating Itself’

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed seized on unexpected praise from Tucker Carlson to argue that President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is “eating itself.”

El-Sayed joined CNN’s OutFront on Monday, where host Erin Burnett showed a clip of Carlson’s recent comments.

“I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint,” Carlson said of El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in an early September episode of his podcast, going on to call the Democrat’s campaign “literally Trumpian” and predict his win in November.

“Do you welcome Tucker Carlson’s support?” Burnett asked.

“Look, Tucker and I don’t agree on much, but we definitely agree on what he just said,” El-Sayed responded, before once again bashing his opponent as “feckless” and a “coward.”

He continued:

I think what you’re seeing here is MAGA eating itself, because those who believed 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 — folks are turning on people like Mike Rogers ’cause Mike Rogers was a neocon, and then he decried Donald Trump when Donald Trump came to power. Now, he’s willing to do whatever Donald Trump tells him to do, so long as Donald Trump is happy with him.

So, I think [Carlson’s words are] 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. I’m somebody who came through an 11-to-1 spend — $70 million spent against me because I don’t take corporate money and stood up on my principles. And so I think that’s what [Carlson] is speaking to right now. I’ve never had a conversation with him. He’s not somebody whose endorsement I sought, but really, this is more of a non-endorsement for Mike Rogers, an anti-endorsement against Mike Rogers, than it is anything about me.

Watch above on CNN.

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!