NewsBusters Podcast: Kristen Welker's 'Meet the Concierge' Sitdown with Abdul

October 12th, 2026 10:45 PM
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How can you tell if an interview's tough or soft? When interviewing Trump, the host will interrupt repeatedly to challenge him. When interviewing a Democrat, the answers can go on for 300 words without interruption -- a small speech. Look at NBC's Meet The Press host Kristen Welker badgering Trump, and it's nothing like her softball session with Abdul el-Sayed.

MRC Business Associate Editor Joseph Vazquez and longtime NewsBusters contributor Mark Finkelstein joined the show to discuss the weekend in politics.

On Sunday, Welker began by asking two questions to help Abdul negotiate out of embarrassment for earlier comments attacking Barack Obama -- who's now coming to Michigan to campaign for him. His first two answers were both over 320 words. Later, when Welker asked about his "hurt people hurt people" excuse for a man attacking a Michigan synagogue, his answer was 382 words. When Welker tried to help him deny his family had any connections to the terrorism-backing Muslim Brotherhood, one answer was 479 words. 

Also: On CNN on Sunday, Jake Tapper might have thought he was going to put the DHS Secretary on the spot. Instead, Markwayne Mullin unloaded a fact wagon on State of the Union.  The topic was ICE's operation against Oscar Belgal, an illegal Dominican immigrant wanted on multiple charges. Incredibly, Tapper rushed to defend the illegal immigrant and his fears. 

On his MS NOW show PoliticsNation on Saturday, longtime ambulance-chaser Rev. Al Sharpton added radical DSA Congresswoman-In-Waiting Darializa Avila Chevalier to the trash-ICE effort. She wanted the New York City police commissioner to resign because...she listed the illegal alien's criminal offenses in a press conference. 

The elitist media are highly suspicious of Christianity, unless a Democrat decides to use it as a political strategy, as in Rev. Raphael Warnock or James Talarico. Jon Karl of ABC traveled to Kansas and met with Senate candidate Adam Hamilton for This Week. The purpose of this interview was to establish Hamilton as a reasonable centrist. Karl asked Hamilton to respond to Vice President Vance charging that Hamilton displayed "left-wing radicalism dressed in the skin suit of our religion."

Finally, the content cops at NewsGuard actually called out partisan content factories like Courier Newsroom -- a lefty fake news collective funded by George Soros to the tune of at least $20 million — and how it has been seeping into the messaging of a litany of campaign ads used by Democrat “candidates and political action committees.” This week, the outfit reportedly “identified seven video ads for key races in Iowa, Ohio, and Alabama featuring on-screen citations of” what it dubs as “pink slime websites.”

Enjoy the video podcast below. The audio is here.