The Most Interesting Moments of Kaitlan Collins’ Softball Session with Abdul El-Sayed

Jorge Bonilla
August 6th, 2026 12:13 AM

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Abdul El-Sayed granted his first CNN interview since winning his contentious Michigan Senate Democrat primary to Kaitlan Collins. It was an unfortunate softball interview, with multiple wasted opportunities. Here are some moments from that interview.

Collins opened with the usual post-primary pleasantries and narratives: how to unite the party, will Haley Stevens campaign with, reaction to Trump saying El-Sayed is “full of sh*t”, fundraising, and Chuck Schumer. The Schumer question prompted El-Sayed to say he really wants to grill HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.:

 

 

ABDUL EL-SAYED: I can't wait to sit across RFK, Jr. And actually grill him. Dude uses big words he does not understand. And I happened to go to medical school, so I kind of understand them. It is going to be a good time holding him accountable for all of the grift that he has pushed on the American public.

KAITLAN COLLINS: So that's the- if you win, that's the Trump official you most want to see testifying before you in the Senate.

EL-SAYED: I think it's the Trump official that most people would probably like to see me stand up against, because, look, I'm a guy with a doctorate in medicine and in public health. He’s a guy who takes his kids swimming in Shitt’s Creek.

This would have been a good opportunity for Collins to do a substantive follow up. Why does El-Sayed, the immunologist, want to go after Kennedy? Is it for his opposition to Anthony Fauci and his handling of the Covid pandemic? We don’t know because Collins wasn’t interested in pressing El-Sayed.

Collins then moves to a question on John Fetterman, who has been a strong opponent of El-Sayed. This segues into a question on El-Sayed’s association with communist streamer Hasan Piker, which El-Sayed dances around with no true followup from Collins:

 

 

COLLINS: Speaking of senators that you might be serving alongside and questioning Trump officials, I want you to listen to what I'm not sure if you've seen this, what democratic senator John Fetterman said about you today.

WOLF BLITZER: Are you willing to unify with Abdul El-Sayed, for example, who's now the Democratic nominee, the Democratic candidate?

JOHN FETTERMAN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, the tough guy. He called me “ugly” and that I should be “on a pike” and I'm like, chief, I own mirrors. (VIDEO SWIPE) Well, I can't come together with someone if you are willing to embrace people that- that loves Hamas or that thinks America deserved 9/11. I think- I think that's reasonable.

COLLINS: What's your response to Senator Fetterman?

EL-SAYED: In Trump's words? What a lovely gentleman.

COLLINS: I mean, he said that you need to renounce people like the leftwing streamer Hasan Piker, who was campaigning with you, who was out there in Michigan on Monday night, I believe last night as well. Um, do you have any plans to- to do that?

EL-SAYED: Look, I'll tell you this, I'm less focused on folks who are campaigning with me, more focused on the folks I'm campaigning to. And I think it's important to stay in touch with the folks who you want to elect you. I think that's clearly what's gone wrong with Senator Fetterman. It's clear he probably doesn't spend much time in Pennsylvania because he was campaigning with Bernie Sanders and now wants to renounce Bernie Sanders. I don't know if he still thinks he's a Democrat or not. But, look, I'm hoping to get to the U.S. Senate. Maybe we can hash that conversation out in person. But for right now, I’m focused on winning my state so we can win a Democratic majority in the fall.

There was no further followup from Collins on Piker or any of his controversial statements. She asked the question, took the talking point set piece, checked the box off, and moved on.

Next: the Israel question.

 

 

COLLINS: Can you clarify for us what your position is on funding for Israel? If you do become a U.S. Senator, are you opposed to all funding for Israel, period? Military funding?

EL-SAYED: I'm opposed to unconditional military aid for any country. That is Israel, yes, but that's also Egypt, where my family immigrated from. That's Pakistan, that's Saudi Arabia, that's UAE. And that's not because of a focus on what's happening anywhere except for a focus on what's happening here. We've got communities in my state where the median income is $14,000, and I believe they have a right to their tax dollars. 

I also believe in international law and upholding international law. And there are Leahy laws against dealing arms to countries who are engaged in human rights abuses. And I don't want to fund a foreign military that does genocide, apartheid, or has taken us to a war we don't need to fight. I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians alike. I believe our responsibility though, more than anything else, is to use our tax money here in Michigan to provide health care in Michigan and schools in Michigan and roads in Michigan, rather than to send it to a foreign government that might use it in the form of bombs and tanks to destroy infrastructure and schools and hospitals there.

COLLINS: Some people might hear that and say, well, does he support, you know, funding defensive systems like the Iron Dome in Israel? Do you?

EL-SAYED: I don't believe that there's really a difference between offensive or defensive weapons. And I also don't believe it's my responsibility to buy defensive weapons for a foreign government when our kids are defenseless against schools that have been underfunded for a very, very long time. My responsibility as the next senator from Michigan is children in Michigan. Rather than thinking about what's in the interest of a foreign government.

COLLINS: Okay, so that's a yes that you are against funding to things like the Iron Dome.

EL-SAYED: I am against it in large part because I just don't understand why anybody thinks it's the right thing to do to send our tax dollars abroad to fund foreign militaries when our kids get to go to schools that are barely functional.

There was no further followup to the specific Israel question, just like there was no followup on the Hasan Piker question. Collins instead goes to a question on El-Sayed’s relationship with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (who said she does not feel safe in attending the state’s Democrat convention). El-Sayed deftly made the question about him with no further followup from Collins, effectively squashing that line of questioning.

With all the fluff and lack of followup, what kind of questions did El-Sayed get from Collins? The classic question on what it feels like to perhaps be an ethnic first:

 

 

COLLINS: Well, and you talked about when you've run for office before- death threats, that you got- islamophobia. If you do win, you will become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history. What would that mean, mean for you?

EL-SAYED: It's not as much about what it means for me. I'm not running to be the first Muslim anything. I just want to be a really, really great senator for my state. But it does mean something, I think about the country. There are people like J.D. Vance or Donald Trump or Mike Rogers, who wanted to define America as being too small to include some kinds of people, and they point to my name, they point to my faith, they try to insinuate that somehow I'm less American because of those things. But I've put myself forward asking my state to give me their stake in democracy, to allow me to serve them as an agent of the government. And there is no greater, I think, call than to ask your fellow Americans to give you their stake in democracy. And when they do, I think it says a lot about what America is. They want America to be small. I believe that America is big. It's open minded. It's big hearted. It can include any of us, regardless of how we pray, regardless of where our families come from, regardless of who we love or how we identify. identify. That's the America we're building. And I think America in Michigan in particular, has an opportunity to remind us just how big we are.

El-Sayed delivers the prepackaged “diversity is our biggest strength” variant with no further followup from Collins or questioning any of his premises that serve to frame any ideological opposition to him as islamophobia- just as ideological opposition to Barack Obama was framed as racism.

The interview closed out with a question on whether El-Sayed is willing to moderate, which was met with another talking point set piece. There was no true exploration of El-Sayed on CNN- just a carefully orchestrated rollout of the Elitist Media’s next darling.

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