In a tense Fox interview, Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan Abdul El-Sayed called out Fox host Jesse Watters for focusing on trans athletes instead of important issues in the upcoming election.
“Jesse, you have not asked me one time about the issues that people actually care about in Michigan,” El-Sayed said. “You don’t want to talk about gas prices. You don’t want to talk about groceries. You don’t want to talk about health care. You don’t want to talk about the stupid trade war that’s about to destroy-“
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Watters interjected that he asked about other topics, but El-Sayed pressed on: “You want to bring up all this culture war, you know, that I’m not here to fight a culture war.”
Watters tried to take control again: “If you want to do an interview, you can do the interview, OK? I will ask the questions.”
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“I’m getting at whether you think men should play in women’s sports,” Watters said, something that no one supports, as El-Sayed continued to talk about economic issues. “It’s a big issue!”
“You’re filibustering!” Watters continued. “You won’t answer the question.”
“What sports kids play?… Look, I played sports my whole life; sports were an important part of my life. I’m grateful for the opportunity to play sports,” El-Sayed said. “At the end of the day, the decision of who gets to play what sports ought to be decided by the people who govern sports.”
“I’m here trying to take on the health care crisis and big pharma, and you’re asking me about who gets to play what sport?”
“Kind of a big thing if you’ve been following the news recently, Abdul,” Watters responded, probably referring to how Fox News has been focusing extensively on complaints about the WNBA’s policy on trans participation. There are currently no trans women in the WNBA, but that hasn’t stopped Fox from talking about the WNBA so much that even Watters himself complained about it earlier this month.
El-Sayed’s answer – that the federal government shouldn’t be deciding trans kids’ sports eligibility and that the decision should be left to local governments and sports governing agencies – is basically the answer that former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg floated last year as Democrats attempted to find a way to respond to the issue. Trans kids participating in school sports with others of their gender polls very poorly at the moment in the US, even though Democrats oppose state and federal efforts to legislate on the issue.
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