BS BULLETIN:
- Tucker Carlson lavished unexpected praise on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, agreeing that parts of the progressive candidate’s message are “literally Trumpian.”
- Carlson was considerably less enthusiastic about Republican nominee Mike Rogers, declaring, “I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint.”
- The strange-bedfellows moment came as El-Sayed and Rogers battle for Michigan’s open Senate seat in one of the country’s most closely watched midterm races.
Nobody had Tucker Carlson potentially warming up to progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on their 2026 political bingo card.
But here we are.
Carlson stunned his audience during Wednesday’s episode of The Tucker Carlson Show while discussing Michigan’s Senate race with Breaking Points co-host Saagar Enjeti.
The conversation quickly turned into something Republicans probably weren’t expecting: a lengthy discussion of what Carlson and Enjeti see as El-Sayed’s surprisingly Trump-like appeal — coupled with a brutal assessment of GOP nominee Mike Rogers.
“I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint,” Carlson said.
Enjeti described El-Sayed as a “full-blown leftist” but argued that the Democrat has increasingly framed parts of his campaign around populist, America First-style themes.
He pointed particularly to El-Sayed’s opposition to U.S. support for Israel, which the candidate has connected to domestic concerns such as health-care costs and spending taxpayer money overseas.
Enjeti called the approach “almost Trumpian.”
Carlson went even further.
“Well, it is literally Trumpian,” he replied.
That is quite a sentence considering President Donald Trump has attacked El-Sayed as a “Communist loser,” while Vice President JD Vance has spent recent days in an increasingly personal feud with the Democrat.
Carlson’s contempt for Rogers was even less subtle.
He described the Republican as essentially beholden to Israel and the intelligence establishment and questioned how Rogers ended up with the GOP nomination.
Rogers, a former FBI agent and House Intelligence Committee chairman, narrowly lost Michigan’s 2024 Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin even as Trump carried the state. He returned this year and won the Republican nomination for the open seat.
The Israel issue has become particularly complicated for Rogers. Axios recently reported that his allies asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf amid concerns that the pro-Israel group’s involvement could hurt him politically.
Carlson and Enjeti also openly discussed whether El-Sayed could win in November. Enjeti said that if forced to bet, he would probably pick El-Sayed. Carlson responded, “I would think so.”
El-Sayed remains an unusual candidate for Carlson to be praising. He ran as an unabashed progressive, supports Medicare for All and has been backed by figures including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His past comments about guns, fireworks and football have also provided plenty of ammunition for Republicans.
But Carlson’s increasingly nontraditional brand of populism appears to have produced one of the stranger political alignments of the midterms: Tucker Carlson may not be joining the Abdul El-Sayed fan club. But he certainly doesn’t sound like he’s joining the Mike Rogers one.
MY QUICK TAKE
Whatever you think of El-Sayed, Carlson’s reaction exposes a very real fault line on the right. For some populist conservatives, opposition to foreign entanglements and the old national-security establishment is becoming more important than the letter next to a candidate’s name.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Mediaite — Tucker Carlson all but endorses ‘Trumpian’ Abdul El-Sayed
- Tucker Carlson Network
- Axios — reporting on the Michigan Senate race
- Associated Press — background on Abdul El-Sayed
- Wall Street Journal — Michigan Senate race context
- Mediaite — prior reporting on El-Sayed
- JTA — Michigan political context
