Earlier this week, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed gave a rather bizarre answer to Fox News’s Jesse Watters when asked if “it’s okay for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off” by comparing such an operation to circumcision. However, according to NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers and writer/producer Sal Gentile’s Thursday A Closer Look Out of Office podcast, El-Sayed actually “manhandled Jesse Watters.” The El-Sayed praise also led the duo to an ungraceful segue that led to some equally bizarre hot takes about the administration’s Economic D-Day sanctions against Iran being called “stolen valor.”
Meyers is currently in the midst of a seven-week hiatus, so he and Gentile have taken to putting up podcasts on Late Night’s YouTube page that discuss what the show would be like if it were on the air. Gentile set the scene by declaring, “The competitive race there is between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, and Abdul El-Sayed was on Fox News, and he did an interview with Jesse Waters. And I think it's fair to say he, like, pretty well manhandled Jesse Waters. Like, Jesse Waters was not prepared for Abdul El-Sayed. And I just—the only reason I want to play this clip is because this is an example of something I would write into ‘A Closer Look,’ and I wanna see if you would—if you would have kept it.”
Seth Meyers and writer/producer Sal Gentile actually think Abdul El-Sayed's Jesse Watters interview where he compared whacking a kid's "ding-a-ling" off to circumcision makes El-Sayed look good with Gentile saying, "And I think it's fair to say he like pretty well manhandled… pic.twitter.com/SXx7Src5nj
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 28, 2026
Gentile then introduced the clip, “Okay, so let's play—so let's first play the first clip of Abdul El-Sayed. So, he's making a very legitimate point that he wants to talk about affordability and real things that matter to real people every day, and Jesse Waters wants to talk about right-wing hysterical culture war bull[bleep].”
In the clip, Watters asked, “So, you think it’s okay for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off? You think that’s okay?”
El-Sayed answered, “I mean, do you, so do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised?”
Watters affirmed that he was while also rebuking the question, "That's a personal question, doctor!” El-Sayed, thinking he had a brilliant answer, responded, “Jesse, okay, so you probably should want to move on. You probably should want to move on.”
El-Sayed gave a dumb response, and anyone who ever passed high school biology could tell you why, but Gentile thought it was unparalleled brilliance, “Okay, so. The thing I wanted to just point out about this is two. First of all, he pretty well handled the question, which is like, ‘I wanna talk about normal stuff, and you want to talk about insane bull[bleep], that nobody cares about and is false also.’”
Gentile also then quipped that, “Now, I know why Jesse Waters supports Donald Trump. He didn't have to pay for his circumcision.”
After playing a clip of President Trump from 2024 touting his “No tax on tips” plan, Gentile wondered if that would “have stayed in ‘A Closer Look’ if I had written that in?”
Meyers twice responded with “I think so,” before launching into an equally bizarre and nonsensical analogy about the administration’s latest economic sanctions on Iran, “It's like that question to Scott Bessent that I think flustered him was, you know, the thing about D-Day, you're calling this an economic D-Day. The thing about D-Day was you didn't announce it in advance.”
Both Meyers and Gentile seemed to be unaware that D-Day can be used to simply mean the day a big event is scheduled to take place. It does not necessarily mean June 6, 1944, but Meyers still added, “I know this, I'm using this wrong, it's real stolen valor for these guys at podiums to be like, ‘We're gonna do a D-Day.’”
Gentile concurred, “Imagine how much worse the opening to Saving Private Ryan would have been if instead of—was storming the beaches of Normandy, the actual D-Day, it was just guys in suits doing this like—”
Meyers and Gentile wanted to portray both Jesse Watters’ position on trans surgeries for minors and the administration’s Iran sanctions as absurd, but all they ended up doing was highlighting their own absurdity.
Here is a transcript for the August 27 show:
NBC A Closer Look Out of Office
8/27/2026
SAL GENTILE: The competitive race there is between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, and Abdul El-Sayed was on Fox News, and he did an interview with Jesse Waters. And I think it's fair to say he, like, pretty well manhandled Jesse Waters. Like, Jesse Waters was not prepared for Abdul El-Sayed. And I just—the only reason I want to play this clip is because this is an example of something I would write into “A Closer Look,” and I wanna see if you would— if you would have kept it.
SETH MEYERS: Okay, gotcha.
GENTILE: Okay, so let's play—so let's first play the first clip of Abdul El-Sayed. So, he's making a very legitimate point that he wants to talk about affordability and real things that matter to real people every day, and Jesse Waters wants to talk about right-wing hysterical culture war bull[bleep]. And so this is a clip about that.
ABDUL EL-SAYED [8/24/26]: I just think the government shouldn't tell you what kind of healthcare you should have. And if you're a minor that's between you, your doctor, and your parents.
JESSE WATTERS: You want to try on kids?!
EL-SAYED: Now, if you disagree with that, if you disagree with that, if you disagree that healthcare decisions need to be made by a doctor and their parents and a patient, then I just think we agree to disagree. But, you know, you want to put government inside—
WATTERS: So Abdul, you're a doctor, right?
EL-SAYED: —a clinic or a hospital, selectively. I am. [unintelligible]
WATTERS: So, you think it’s okay for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off? You think that’s okay?
EL-SAYED: I mean, do you, so do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised?
WATTERS: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, that's a personal question, doctor!
EL-SAYED: Jesse, okay, so you probably should want to move on. You probably should want to move on.
GENTILE: Okay, so. The thing I wanted to just point out about this is two. First of all, he pretty well handled the question, which is like, “I wanna talk about normal stuff, and you want to talk about insane bull[bleep], that nobody cares about and is false also.”
MEYERS: Right.
GENTILE: But second of all, now I know why Jesse Waters supports Donald Trump. He didn't have to pay for his circumcision.
MEYERS: Got it for free.
GENTILE: You know why? Tony.
DONALD TRUMP [8/8/24]: No tax on tips.
MEYERS: I mean, fantastic. Just fantastic.
GENTILE: So now, would that have stayed in “A Closer Look” if I had written that in?
MEYERS: I think so. Yeah.
GENTILE: Would you have left that in?
MEYERS: I think so.
GENTILE: I think it would have played well.
MEYERS: It's like that question to Scott Bessent that I think flustered him was, you know, the thing about D-Day, you're calling this an economic D-Day.
GENTILE: Yeah.
MEYERS: The thing about D-Day was you didn't announce it in advance.
GENTILE: Yes.
MEYERS: You just did it. So instead you're saying we're gonna do a D-Day.
GENTILE: Yeah
MEYERS: But, you know, to what end would you announce it, you know—
GENTILE: Yes, also we're gonna do a D-Day to ourselves—
MEYERS: Right.
GENTILE: —like, you know, you better watch out.
SETH MEYERS: Also, it’s real—I know this, I'm using this wrong, it's real stolen valor for these guys at podiums to be like, “We're gonna do a D-Day”—
GENTILE: Yeah.
MEYERS: —but it's not. Like, we're not actually gonna, you know, do anything—
GENTILE: Yeah, we're gonna do a D-Day, but it's, but it's bank stuff.
MEYERS: It's bank stuff.
GENTILE: Imagine how much worse the opening to Saving Private Ryan would have been if instead of –was storming the beaches of Normandy, the actual D-Day, it was just guys in suits doing this like—
MEYERS: And then I'm just gonna move the decimal point here.
