Sean Hannity has resurfaced a 2018 interview that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed probably wishes had stayed buried.
In the clip, El-Sayed vowed his state would "not expend a dime" enforcing federal immigration law. "We as a country, I believe owe it to the world to open our doors," he said in the sit-down interview.
"Resurfaced 2018 clip: Abdul El-Sayed, now running for U.S. Senate, vowed his state would 'not expend a dime' enforcing federal immigration law," Hannity wrote on X Sunday morning, "and said 'We as a country, I believe owe it to the world to open our doors.'"
The timing could hardly be worse for El-Sayed. He won the Democratic primary in August and now faces Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan's open Senate seat — the one being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters — with the general election on November 3, less than a month away.
El-Sayed, the former health director for Detroit and Wayne County, has run as a progressive fighter. But the clip hands Rogers and national Republicans a ready-made closing argument: their opponent, on camera, saying his state shouldn't spend a dime helping enforce the nation's immigration laws.
It also lands as the Trump administration leans harder than ever into immigration enforcement — the border crackdown, the deportation push, the fights with sanctuary cities. A Democratic Senate nominee in a battleground state dismissing enforcement outright is exactly the contrast Republicans want voters seeing.
Rogers, who narrowly lost Michigan's 2024 Senate race, has already been hammering El-Sayed for months — including a recent ad blasting him over Iran. This clip gives him fresh ammunition in the race's final stretch.
With November 3 weeks away, expect this 2018 interview to get a lot more airtime.