The cast of MS NOW’s Morning Joe did their best on Friday to help drag Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul-El Sayed across the finish line, with co-host Joe Scarborough being particularly helpful. Not only did Scarborough waste about two minutes of everyone’s time with questions about fishing and football, he also called “bullshit” on the GOP’s criticisms of El-Sayed for his associations with Hasan Piker, who recently said the U.S. is worse than al-Qaeda.
The Morning Joe table had been discussing fly fishing when Scarborough welcomed El-Sayed and wondered about his own fishing habits, “Do you fish? Abdul, do you fish?”
El-Sayed replied that he was not expecting the question, “That was not the intro question—not the intro question I was expecting. No, I don't. Don't have as much time.”
Joe Scarborough starts Morning Joe's interview with Abdul El-Sayed with some real hardballs, "Do you fish? Abdul. Do you fish?" and "Did Michigan—did they get an extra play that they didn't deserve? Did the officials get that— you’re a football guy—did the officials—" and "Now,… pic.twitter.com/GwRnzmS5yQ
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 18, 2026
If Scarborough had just left it at that, it would’ve been possible to write off the question as a silly intro to a 20-minute interview, but Scarborough persisted, “You don't have as much time. And if you did have time, do you think you would fish?”
El-Sayed tried to redirect the question to his stump speech by claiming, “It might be something I do if we still have Great Lakes and Donald Trump hasn't destroyed all of them. So, there's that.”
However, Scarborough wasn’t finished with irrelevant softballs. Rewinding a couple of weeks to the controversial college football game between Michigan and Western Michigan, he wondered, “Yeah, exactly, exactly. There you go. No, that's a good political question. And it segues into my next question, which is, of course, about Michigan. Did Michigan—did they get an extra play that they didn't deserve? Did the officials get that— you’re a football guy—did the officials get that call—”
After El-Sayed admitted Michigan probably benefited from some bad officiating, Scarborough still refused to let the matter die, “Now, you're not one of these goofy politicians that goes to a game when you have two different teams playing and you wear, like, hats on both sides, one like Michigan and Western Michigan, do you — I hope you went there and you were cheering for your alma mater, despite the fact you were going to piss off some people that went to Western Michigan.”
Eventually, the interview got more serious. With the context of Piker’s latest 9/11 comments, Scarborough wondered if El-Sayed was downplaying Piker’s role in his campaign by claiming he’s just a “California streamer.” El-Sayed insisted that just because Piker supports him does not mean he endorses everything Piker has ever said.
That seemed to somewhat appease Scarborough, “I remember Ronald Reagan said in ‘66 when he had a Bircher problem. He said, ‘Listen, if they want to vote for me, that's great, but they're voting for me because of what I believe, not because I believe what they say.’”
However, Scarborough also wondered, “So, I totally get that. I'm just saying, if you just call him a California streamer, that seems to minimize what he did in the primary. That's the only thing I'm asking you. Do you think that minimizes that?”
On Hasan Piker's recent 9/11 comments that El-Sayed ran away from (but in his previous life echoed), Scarborough wonders about his past associating with Piker "I'm just saying, if you just call him a California streamer, that seems to minimize what he did in the primary. That's… pic.twitter.com/xEYEYXYztl
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 18, 2026
El-Sayed responded by giving his typical anti-Mike Rogers talking points, while trying to compare Piker to President Trump, “Meanwhile, you've got a guy like Mike Rogers, who literally goes to Dallas instead of showing up to a debate in Detroit to campaign with Donald Trump, who not only says crazy stuff every day, but does crazy stuff that costs you money… And so it's frustrating to me that I never hear about Hasan Piker on the doors. I never hear about him outside of conversations that are like this.”
Scarborough was a big fan of that answer, “I don't mean to interrupt you, but you've answered the question. I'm going to interrupt you just to say, let's just state the obvious, and I won't swear while I'm looking at the Rev. but it is total bullshit for the Republican Party to be so shocked that somebody who's a streamer who you campaigned with, I think one time, like, this is the biggest issue. And Donald Trump says the things that he says every day, and they justify that every day.”
The reason why the Piker thing resonates is because El-Sayed has also said the American response to 9/11 was worse than 9/11 itself. Now, that he is a major party’s Senate nominee in a tight race, he has had a campaign conversion, and a self-respecting TV host would ask about that, not fishing.
Here is a transcript for the September 18 show:
MS NOW Morning Joe
9/18/2026
7:17 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let's let's ask him. Do you fish? Abdul, do you fish?
ABDUL EL-SAYED: That was not the intro question—not the intro question I was expecting.
SCARBOROUGH: No, it's not.
EL-SAYED: No, I don't. Don't have as much time.
SCARBOROUGH: You don't have as much time. And if you did have time, do you think you would fish?
EL-SAYED: You know, I think it's one of those things that maybe in 30 years—
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: — it might be something I do if we still have Great Lakes and Donald Trump hasn't destroyed all of them. So, there's that.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, exactly, exactly. There you go. No, that's a good political question. And it segues into my next question, which is, of course, about Michigan. Did Michigan—did they get an extra play that they didn't deserve? Did the officials get that— you’re a football guy—did the officials get that call—
EL-SAYED: He's trying to wedge me from my base. Look, as a tried and true Michigan fan —
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: — I'm glad we won. At the same time, I wish it wasn't against Western Michigan.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: And also the rules need to apply the same everywhere. And I just feel like I feel like had it not been in the Big House or under the Big Ten auspices, we might have had a different outcome. That being said, Michigan is 2-0, and I'm happy about it.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. Now, you're not one of these goofy politicians that goes to a game when you have two different teams playing and you wear, like, hats on both sides, one like Michigan and Western Michigan, do you — I hope you went there and you were cheering for your alma mater, despite the fact you were going to piss off some people that went to Western Michigan.
EL-SAYED: Look, I cheered for two reasons on Saturday. That was the Saturday afterwards. Last Saturday, Michigan beat Oklahoma at the Big House.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: And Ohio lost to Texas. And for everybody watching—
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: —Just in case you don't understand this—
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL SAYED: — we don't give Ohio the dignity of the second word because—
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
EL-SAYED: — it's unstately. So if you produce JD Vance, you inevitably lose the second name of your university. It's Ohio.
…
SCARBOROUGH: I remember Ronald Reagan said in ‘66 when he had a Bircher problem. He said, “Listen, if they want to vote for me, that's great, but they're voting for me because of what I believe, not because I believe what they say.”
So, I totally get that. I'm just saying, if you just call him a California streamer, that seems to minimize what he did in the primary. That's the only thing I'm asking you. Do you think that minimizes that?
EL-SAYED: Here's my issue. Here's my issue at the end of the day, right? He is a streamer in California. And the issue that everybody's focused on as we talked about is the price of gas and groceries in Michigan.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
EL-SAYED: Meanwhile, you've got a guy like Mike Rogers, who literally goes to Dallas instead of showing up to a debate in Detroit to campaign with Donald Trump, who not only says crazy stuff every day, but does crazy stuff that costs you money—
SCARBOROUGH: That’s right.
EL-SAYED: —the tariff war, the war in Iran. And so it's frustrating to me that I never hear about Hasan Piker on the doors. I never hear about him outside of conversations that are like this.
SCARBOROUGH: I don't mean to interrupt you, but you've answered the question. I'm going to interrupt you just to say, let's just state the obvious, and I won't swear while I'm looking at the Rev. but it is total bullshit for the Republican Party to be so shocked that somebody who's a streamer who you campaigned with, I think one time, like, this is the biggest issue. And Donald Trump says the things that he says every day, and they justify that every day.
That's one thing. The second part of it, Rev., is I campaigned, I've knocked on doors. The things that people are writing are talking about on cable news. They ain't saying, when I'm knocking on doors, it is—it is about, you know, it was about costs. It was about groceries, it was about gas. And, you know, like Abdul said, man, when people go and vote, they are going to be thinking a lot more about how much their groceries cost, how much their diesel costs, how much their rent costs than anything else we talk about here.
