People get so angry about lies and falsehoods. They REALLY hate it! But when you stop and think about it, it was their fault for believing me in the first place.
(I kid, I kid! Well, kind of.)
In politics, lying is actually a radical form of honesty: When you lie, you’re telling the truth about what you want your audience to believe.
And not just in politics.
I’ll give you an example. If you asked your spouse, “Hey, your phone was turned off last night, and you didn’t come home ‘til dawn. Where the heck were you?” I’m guessing your Spidey-sense would hit an 11 if your hubby replied, “Well, I certainly wasn’t out cheating on you! In fact, if anyone were to tell you I’m having an affair with that smokin’ hot bartender, they’re a dirty, filthy troublemaker.”
People’s lies reveal their honest-to-God truth: what they value, what they fear, and — most important of all — where they’re most vulnerable.
This takes us to Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. He’s deliberately crafted a playful, childlike, borderline-silly public persona:
The internet has found a resurfaced Abdul El-Sayed campaign video, and the Blue’s Clues-inspired pitch is getting roasted.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 13, 2026
El-Sayed dances through the one-minute parody while asking voters for their support, leaning hard into childhood nostalgia with exaggerated moves and a… pic.twitter.com/p5gSAzT2wF
And El-Sayed's campaign has gone out of its way to rebrand him as the all-American Michigan boy.
Hey, he played high school football! He loves fireworks on July 4, cheering for the Wolverines, Andy Williams records, and apple pie!
As for those old social media posts and YouTube videos that say otherwise? Well…
El-Sayed’s campaign said the old clips do not reflect his current views: “Abdul is the former captain of his high school football team, loves Michigan football on Saturdays, and celebrates the Fourth of July with fireworks like the next Michigander. Cherry-picked comments from old podcasts don’t reflect his beliefs today.”
Just a nonthreatening, lovable, ordinary “physician” (who’s never practiced medicine, earned a medical license, completed his residency, or even passed his board exams).
Which is why his bizarrely aggressive response to his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, raised so many eyebrows. El-Sayed went from saying this about football:
Abdul El-Sayed on football: "Football is very much associated with a particularly masculine and oftentimes toxically masculine culture." pic.twitter.com/UqPxID8yD4
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) August 10, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed says football culture is slavery,
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) August 12, 2026
“Folks who founded this country on the backs of native folks that they destroyed, then captured people, enslaved them and had them work their fields… you kind of see echoed in the ethos of football.”
pic.twitter.com/mn4XYHh72j
To this:
Since you’re too afraid to debate me, how about you “hold me accountable” on a football field instead. Tackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I’d be happy to show you much I love football. https://t.co/6oQ6sunxZn
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) August 12, 2026
El-Sayed is 41 years old. Mike Rogers is 63.
Look, I’m 52, and if I challenged someone 22 years older than me (!) to a game of tackle football (!!) — well, I wouldn’t, because it would be frickin’ insane.
I’d sound like a violent, sociopathic bully who gets his jollies beating up senior citizens!
But El-Sayed’s answer revealed a helluva lot more than he realizes. Take a close look at how he scripted his tackle football challenge:
- In that short, three-sentence X post, he dedicated an entire sentence to specifying how he used to play football as a kid — just like “we” used to do. He did this, “we” can assume, because he’s hair-trigger paranoid about being “othered.” (No sir, nothing scary or strange about good ol’ Abdul. Just an all-American kid with an all-American upbringing. Y’know, just like you and me.)
- When forced to choose, he prioritizes sounding “tough” and “Alpha” over being sensitive, playful, silly, and nonthreatening — even though he spent significant PR resources to cultivate that image!
Naturally, X had a field day with El-Sayed’s football challenge:
You'll twist your ankle and accuse Rogers of genocide.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 12, 2026
“You highlighted my anti-American views so now I want to physically hurt you.”
— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) August 12, 2026
- Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed
Bro, he's 63 years old. This post is a bitch move. I'll take his place in your challenge. You down? https://t.co/gMtPNYo3wl
— Jeffery Mead (@the_jefferymead) August 12, 2026
We could focus on El-Sayed’s hypocrisy in bellyaching about football’s “toxic masculinity” — and then challenging a 63-year-old to a game of tackle football. Or we could ask how one-on-one tackle football is even supposed to work: Do you run a QB sneak on every play, ‘cause there’s no one else to pass to? News flash, Abdul: Football isn’t a one-on-one game! It’s a team sport!
For a guy who “loves” football so flippin’ much, El-Sayed doesn’t have much of a grasp on how Americans actually play it.
But now that we know El-Sayed can’t resist taking the bait and flushing his happy-happy-joy-joy image down the toilet when the alternative is appearing weak or “different,” the GOP ought to make a beeline in that direction. That’s our PR sweet spot — and Abdul El-Sayed’s biggest vulnerability.
And we know this because when you lie, you tell the truth about what you want audiences to believe.
He’s noticeably paranoid about being outed as un-American. He’s desperate to be perceived as tough and strong. He tried to mollify his image with silly, playful, nonthreatening videos — but he’ll trash his “happy” mask ASAP if his manhood is challenged.
And, very obviously, he takes his faith in Islam seriously. It’s his core belief — his north star.
Which is why Mike Rogers and the Republican Party should pivot to attacking him on Sharia law.
REVEALED: Abdul El-Sayed proclaimed "obligation" to follow Sharia law until the day he dies
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) August 11, 2026
story from @AndrewKerrNC @jessicaschwalb7 https://t.co/qRIcFmwSh0
Being an ultra-devout Muslim will win you the support of other ultra-devout Muslims. But El-Sayed has already maxed out with those voters.
In the days leading up to Michigan’s primary election, organizers from Emgage, which focuses on empowering Muslim voters, knocked on more than 15,000 doors and sent nearly a million text messages targeting registered voters. Organizers from the Council on American-Islamic Relations called more than 48,000 Michigan voters to encourage them to cast their ballots.
Dr. El-Sayed performed strongly in significant Arab American populations. In Dearborn, he won nearly 80 percent of the vote and 70 percent of the vote in nearby Dearborn Heights.
For non-devout Muslims — plus Protestants, Catholics, Jews, atheists, Hindus, ex-Muslims, and everyone else — Sharia law is scary as hell. It’s biased against “infidels” (non-Muslims). The legal testimony of non-Muslims against Muslims is often inadmissible. There are restrictions on free speech and prohibitions against other religions, including the death penalty for Muslims who convert to another faith.
Only about 2.4% of Michiganians are Muslim. (And only about 65% of U.S. Muslims say religion is “very important” to their lives — a precipitous drop from 69% in 2011 and 72% in 2007.) No matter how you slice it, their numbers are small.
Forget about 80%-20% wedge issues! Opposing Sharia law is AT LEAST a 98%-2% issue!
Here are the 10 questions that Rogers and the GOP should be asking El-Sayed:
- Do you believe that American Muslims who convert to another faith should be executed — or in any way punished?
- Should it be illegal to publish a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in the U.S.?
- Did the staff at Charlie Hebdo deserve what happened to them? (Credit to Stephen L. Miller and Sam Rosenthal.)
- When Sharia law and the Supreme Court are in conflict, whose authority takes precedence in your duty as a U.S. Senator?
- Do you acknowledge that foreign Islamic rulings (fatwas) have zero legal standing in the United States?
- Should non-Muslims be allowed to testify in court against Muslims?
- Do you support Americans’ First Amendment right to say controversial, blasphemous, and even offensive things about ALL religions, including Islam?
- Do you agree that Islamic scholars and tribunals have no legal authority to overturn, ignore, or delay a U.S. court decision?
- Do you believe Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar must allow Christians and Jews to worship freely and openly, which includes the right to build churches and synagogues?
- You have two daughters. If they refuse to wear a hijab when they get older — or decide to date non-Muslims — how would you react?
- Bonus Question: How the heck do you play one-on-one tackle football anyway?! (I’m so confused.)
Personally, I don’t think El-Sayed is disciplined enough to avoid taking our bait. In fact, I suspect the opposite is true: He wants to argue in support of Sharia law because he really, truly believes in it.
So, let’s give him a chance.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have been on an impressive winning streak. From New York City to Los Angeles, it’s the biggest story in politics since you-know-who descended from a golden escalator in 2015. But every now and then, the DSA hits a roadblock.
And when they do, have you noticed that it’s almost NEVER because of economic pushback?
As a lover of free markets and capitalism, I wish it wasn’t so. I wish defending free markets was a winning issue for the GOP — and a galvanizing message for the electorate.
I wish the American people were economically literate.
But they’re not. (And they won’t be ‘til we invest in an educational campaign.) Unfortunately, calling a socialist a socialist doesn’t move the needle anymore.
‘Cause if it did, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Francesca Hong didn’t lose in Wisconsin because voters rejected socialism. Nor did she lose because voters prefer capitalism. If that’s our litmus test, we’re campaigning wrong.
Instead, Hong lost because she was too damn weird — and too un-American.
Francesca Hong: “Cancel Thanksgiving.” pic.twitter.com/TZShfz6cvU
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 31, 2026
Remind you of anyone?
Not for nothing but the dream of killing Thanksgiving was alive and well in Abdul el Sayed long before Hong came along. 🦃 pic.twitter.com/0d9JfdW7Kj
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 12, 2026
If we want to stop the DSA, defeat El-Sayed, and save America, our choice is clear: Hit ‘em where they’re most vulnerable.
And we already know where they’re most vulnerable, because they told us when they lied. We heard it straight from the camel’s mouth: It’s what terrifies them the most.
To “other” them is to kill their candidacy. It’s their greatest liability.
And that’s the truth.
Related: How Republicans Plan to Defeat Abdul El-Sayed — and Why We May Regret It
One Last Thing: 2026 will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the future of our country teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Blue wave or red wall, one way or another the 2026 midterms will transform our country.
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