Tonight, the primaries end in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and a handful of other states. The general election has started in earnest in Michigan, however, where the NRSC has already launched its campaign to define Abdul El-Sayed for the statewide electorate.
In this effort, the GOP gets an assist from CNN's Andrew Kaczynski. The K-Files reporter dug deeply into the archives to find El-Sayed's hot takes on Americana, from fireworks to football. Spoiler alert: El-Sayed hates all of it. The NRSC passed it around this morning to alert people that a radical leftist doesn't much fit in with ordinary Americans.
Quelle surprise:
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed once asked his YouTube viewers whether Americans could “PLEASE” find another way to celebrate the Fourth of July, in a video promising four reasons “why fireworks suck.”
The since-removed video from July 2024 included a chapter titled “Fireworks just aren’t worth it: hear us out” and cited Detroit’s post-fireworks air quality, the chemicals used in fireworks, their potential to trigger PTSD in veterans, and the risks they pose to children and pets.
The video is one of several examples of El-Sayed removing past online content as he seeks elected office. As CNN’s KFile previously reported, he also deleted social media posts supporting the “defund the police” movement.
In other since-removed clips, El-Sayed argued that the southern border was not among Americans’ five biggest concerns and lambasted Republicans for focusing on it. In another he floated replacing the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms with a constitutional right to health care.
Not all of El-Sayed’s commentary has disappeared: In one episode that remains online, he questioned whether football could be “ethical” or “safe” and linked the sport’s “ethos” to narratives used to justify slavery and westward expansion.
It's not as though El-Sayed tried to avoid this exposure. Kaczynski had to dig deep because El-Sayed attempted to memory-hole two years' worth of YouTube podcast content. He clearly didn't do a very good job, as Kaczynski makes clear:
NEW: Before launching his campaign, Abdul El-Sayed removed 100+ YouTubes from 2022-2024. Transcripts show him floating replacing the 2nd Amendment, urging an end to July 4th fireworks, blasting GOP focus on the border.
— Andrew Kaczynski (@KFILE) August 11, 2026
His campaign says they “don’t reflect his beliefs today.” pic.twitter.com/sl98LUKZY0
El-Sayed’s fireworks video was briefly interrupted by a message noting that it was sponsored in part by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In reading ads for the foundation on his “America Dissected” podcast, he highlighted what he called its “cutting-edge areas of scholarship,” on…
— Andrew Kaczynski (@KFILE) August 11, 2026
... on 'feminist prison abolition."
"Feminist prison abolition"? Did they want to abolish feminist prisons? Why would overall prison abolition be feminist at all? The 2023 demographic data for total prison population in the US showed that 93% of all incarcerated convicts are male. Preliminary data for 2025 shows female prisoners now account for 14% of all jail and prison populations, but incarceration in the US overwhelmingly focuses on males, and a not insignificant part of that population are incarcerated for crimes against women and children. Truly feminist policy would explore ways to keep such predators from victimizing women and children, not releasing them back into society to find more prey.
But hey, fellow DSA darling Francesca Hong voted to protect groomers from the 'incarceral state.' Maybe that was "feminist," too.
The bottom line is that El-Sayed had to clean up his track record before running for public office. That strategy has two problems. First, the Internet is forever, especially when Andrew Kaczynski operates it. Second and more importantly, the true character of these anti-social socialists comes through anyway. They have been formed by elites in insular elite circles, and as a result, are simply too weird to sell.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders points out the obvious:
Democrats’ top candidate in Texas won’t eat meat, their leading nominee in Wisconsin hates Thanksgiving, and now their guy in Michigan is coming out against football.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) August 11, 2026
Banner year, guys. https://t.co/kK4FdM4Y2K
And we're not even out of August yet. Just wait to see what else Republican oppo-research teams will produce in the next few weeks. By the time we get to the big midterm convention in Dallas a month from now, we'll have days' worth of material contrasting normal America to the Left's biggest weirdoes. And that'll be worth a fireworks show at the end, too.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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