MS NOW’s Katy Tur Runs Some Comically Blatant PR for Abdul El-Sayed

It has become clear that many in the press are simply touting Abdul El-Sayed. The progressive Senate candidate’s appearances on news networks have mostly been supportive, while others deliver glowing coverage. Katy Tur is among those others; she seems intent on distinguishing herself by becoming more farcical in her devotion.

As she brought on a crowd of decidedly left-of-center guests to discuss the election season, the topic of El-Sayed came up, and the way she presented the candidate and his stature in the campaign explains the bias:

But while he’s trying, is trying to stay on message with policy and ideas, there are a lot of pretty ugly attacks coming out against him. There are people who disagree with people he’s campaigned with, but then there are the much bigger, step further, much more extreme attacks.

She then ran a clip from a speech by Vice President JD Vance, where he made some comments that could be considered caustic, if you are not aware of the framing.

There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today. And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person, whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or black or brown, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others. And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America.

Strong words for El-Sayed, to be sure, but it needs to be said they were a response. Tur did not want to say that. What inspired Vance’s ire is never brought up.

The setup here by Tur is important, as she presents Vance’s speech as a cruel, unprovoked verbal attack. Following that clip, she immediately turned to Chuck Rocha, a senior advisor for the James Talarico campaign, to weigh in. He follows Tur’s lead on the Vance comments. “As a strategist, this is what you say when gas is $4 a gallon and diesel in Michigan is $4.35, and farmers can’t afford to put gas in their tractors. They’re trying to distract.”

We may have a preeminent example of projection taking place with that Rocha quote. Notice these two are very bothered by anyone discussing El-Sayed and not concentrating solely on his campaign platform. Meanwhile, it is all a distraction from the candidate’s own words. Stop bringing up his past writings and even some of his recent comments; just focus on his campaign promises!

El-Sayed responded to a prior speech by Vance, where he discussed the premise of his grandfather being shocked to see we have candidates who are entertaining the concept of introducing Sharia law in this country. He decided to invoke the name of Vance’s wife and take a decidedly racist slant with his post.

So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no… https://t.co/JApcsCW4kU

— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) August 22, 2026

As a prime example of their distraction attempts, both Rocha and Tur are doing exactly that with the Vance video clip. They do not address the recent dust-up between Vance and El-Sayed regarding the vice president’s wife, Usha Vance. El-Sayed sparked the conflict with his comments on the Second Lady, but tellingly, Tur did not want to bring up that crucial detail in her defense of El-Sayed.

All the evidence of this you need is in what she elected not to cover in this appearance. Vance addressed those very words from El-Sayed in this same speech. If you are delivering straight news and commentary, you would have properly shown and explained the motivation behind Vance’s comments. That would not reflect well on El-Sayed, however. So dodge it, she will!

Instead, we have Tur playing the role of campaign adviser and lashing out at Vance for his “unfair” words about the Michigan candidate. El-Sayed’s provocative comments that drew the attention of the vice president are never mentioned. Just focus on his campaign proposals; do not address his direct comments.

Her in-kind donation to the campaign has been recorded.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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