Jesse Watters can’t seem to stop admiring Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. The Fox News host loves to talk about how Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the Senate is “in great shape” and how “Abdul . . . beat the machine” — meaning the party establishment’s candidate, Rep. Haley Stevens — in a hard-fought primary. During an interview in August, Watters clearly enjoyed El-Sayed’s jokes and blunt speech, which included calling his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, a “beta,” and asking the host if he was circumcised when Watters tried to corner him on gender-affirming surgery for minors. The next day, Watters made no bones about El-Sayed’s appeal. “I like him,” he said. “I don’t want to like him. I like him for some stupid reason.”
But the reason was obvious. The doctor-turned-politician has an aggressive bro style that appeals to someone like Watters. Quick-witted with bulldog energy, El-Sayed never backs down from a fight. But despite Watters’ admiration, Fox News has become obsessed with taking El-Sayed down. It’s not because he’s Muslim, though Republicans are ratcheting up the racism in their efforts to derail his campaign. It’s because he is a model for how Democrats can escape their reputations for being weak and feckless.
He called his opponent a beta multiple times on his Fox News interview.
He definitely has a bro persona that he puts on to cater to certain audiences, which is good, a politician should be able to communicate with different groups on their level. Democrats do have a problem meeting young men / bros where they’re at. If him calling Mike Rogers a cuck gets more disaffected young men to vote for him instead of the Republicans I’m all for it
Bro has pretty much become a derogatory term on the left, but a ton of young men identify with that sort of culture and we can’t just call them all misogynists and cede them to the right if we want to win.