The MeidasTouch Podcast - Michigan Dem Senate Candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on Trump’s Attacks

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Michigan being ravaged by Donald Trump’s policies and Meiselas interviews Dr. Abdul El-Sayed about his candidacy for senate in Michigan. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun.

And make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you please contact connex ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor

free of charge bet mgm operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming ontario as donald trump and elon musk have unleashed their wrecking ball in the united states of america michigan has been impacted significantly. And it's notable because Michigan flipped back in the 2024 election to vote for Trump. There were obviously red flags during the election, like when Trump would go to Michigan and have fake union workers at fake union shops pretend to be union workers. I don't know, that may have been a red flag, but now you have real Michigan auto workers and union workers who are saying, look, you're playing poker with people's lives. This from a recent Guardian piece, residents in the auto industries, Heartland,

are responding to the chaotic start to Trump's signature economic policy. I think we've seen Donald Trump's polling when it comes to his handling of the economy right now lower than it even was during COVID. That's supposed to be the strong issue, I guess, for the Republicans, although I never knew why that was viewed as a strong issue for Republicans. There's other issues in Michigan that need to be highlighted as well, like this, 70 international students facing deportation in Michigan, and the Trump regime refuses to say why. The ACLU is challenging the Trump regime's decision to revoke international students' legal status. Representatives from the various universities are saying they're not given any reasons why, and it's harming their university's cohesiveness and ability to function. Stories like this, a lab that helps forecast severe weather in Michigan is crippled by Trump

staffing cuts. Essential functions at the Federal Great Lakes Research Lab that monitors toxic algae blooms and helps forecast Michigan weather have been crippled by the Trump regime's wave of federal firings of 30,000 federal workers in Michigan. We're seeing resistance as well. MSU faculty joining calls for a Big Ten mutual defense compact with other universities to stand up. And we're just hearing tragic individual stories, you know, like this. I mean, and this story is repeated over and over again. A Michigan car repair shop owner detailing how the Trump tariffs are impacting his business. Let's play it. These tariffs affect your day to day operations. I mean,

is charging more the only solution? And that's the problem. You can only pass so much onto a customer. As a mechanic, our labor rates are a little bit high because cars are more complicated to work on, to diagnose. So we try to help a customer by getting parts at a discount. Now with these 25% going up, it's not much we can help. And we're scared that customers will put off their repairs, hopefully not too long, but we just don't know what's going to happen. You have the tariff threat to business, and then you have the fact that the Trump regime is disappearing people off the streets and sending them to essentially extermination camps in El Salvador. Here on WWMT-TV, a West Michigan business owner talks about the impact on his

various businesses and how the Trump immigration attacks are devastating to Michigan. Vladimir Judy owns a few different businesses here in Coldwater. He tells me many of his workers came to the U.S. legally under programs created by former President Joe Biden's administration. He says that many of these workers are deported under Trump administration policies, it would be a disaster for his businesses. I think it's a big mistake, and there is a lot of mistakes together that he's doing right now, and I think it's going to be catastrophic. Vladimir Giudi says he believes migrants are a big force driving America's economy.

He tells me, like so many others, he came to the U.S. from Haiti for a better life with more opportunities. At first, he was going to deport the criminals, but it seems like he didn't find enough criminals to stay busy, so now he's going after the good ones. Judy says so far none of his workers have been deported, but it's a major concern because of recent attempts to deport some migrants legally in the U.S. That includes the deportation of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to El Salvador. The Trump administration claims Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, despite providing no evidence. Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room,

you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year. President Trump is also trying to undo some immigration programs which allow migrants to work in the U.S. As for Judy, he has a message for migrant workers in West Michigan. I think it's a privilege that we have in the United States, that we have people coming from all over the world to come here and work and contribute to the American dream. Be proud of yourself. Know your worth. Stay strong. Know your worth. Stay strong. Let's bring in Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Doctor, you're running as the Democratic candidate, one of the Democratic candidates for the Senate race there. Senator Bernie Sanders just endorsed you, a big endorsement right there. You just recently

announced your candidacy. When you see those videos, you're on the ground in Michigan. You previously were the director of the largest health department in the state of Michigan, where you were focusing on doing things like giving kids free eyeglasses and helping people. So what do you make of the situation right now in the state? You know, Ben, I'll tell you, there is so much pain. And I trained as a doctor. And the thing you're trained to do is to walk in and see pain and ask two foundational questions. What's wrong? And how can I help? And the thing about it is that oftentimes when people see you, when they're in pain, it's already set into a kind of cynicism.

What Trump's one neat trick is, is he's able to take that pain and then really, really drive the cynicism so that he puts people like him and Elon Musk in power. And then they just make it worse because of course they never really had any solutions. And you think about that message from that business owner, my neighbor here in Michigan, and we all have to know our worth. We all have sources of pain. In fact, I would argue that the reason Trump ever got elected is because there is so much of it. But the question of pain is, can we actually work together and turn it into hope? Can we believe that things can actually get better? What Trump did on immigration, if I may for a second, because my parents immigrated to this country, what he did was he made us think that it was somebody else who was causing

us all this pain. And then he demagogued the whole idea of immigration itself to destroy people's lives. I don't think anybody wants their lives destroyed or the lives of their neighbors destroyed. What they really want is to know that the economy works for people like them, not Musk and Trump. They really want to know that they can go see a doctor without taking on crippling medical debt. They really want to know that their kid goes to a school that's going to train them for the future that they hope will be better than the one that they had. And so it's just failing to see the challenge in front of folks and turning it into

or turning ourselves against one another. You know, I saw Senator Sanders rally in Michigan, and then he was in Wisconsin. And then he went to lots of ruby red states, he went to Utah, he was in Idaho, then red areas in blue states. Lots of people showing up and he's talking about issues that hit home to people, education, healthcare, things that are at the center of their lives. So do you see hope though right now? Do you see change? Because Michigan went in the opposite direction in the 2024 election. Yeah. I happen to be one of the speakers at that rally in Warren. I mean, when I tell you what 10,000 people in a high school looks like, it's kind of wild. But the reason that they came out to listen to Senator Sanders

is because he's been talking about these issues for a very long time. And anybody who knows anything about the Senator is that he is unafraid to say what's wrong, to call it out clearly and to propose real solutions. And you think about the kind of enthusiasm that that's generating. It should remind us that the bar is not really so high, even though I think a lot of politicians get themselves wound around the axle. And the reason why is because we're told that the way to win an election in a place like Michigan is to triangulate to the least common denominator position on an issue, and then make sure it's fundamentally inoffensive to anybody. But that then means that if you're thinking about the corporation whose pack check

you want, you end up saying nothing at all. But then you say it with enthusiasm because some consultant told you that you've got to really say it. But when you say nothing at all with enthusiasm, you'll look ridiculous. And so what Bernie is showing us is that if you were actually willing to surface the conversations people are having with their loved ones across the dinner table or the anxieties that they have when they look their kids in the eye and speak directly to those, that folks want to come out for that. So I'm so grateful for his endorsement, for what he's been doing in our politics. And I'm hoping that here in Michigan, we can take that, take that pain and surface it into real solutions that we can actually turn into public policy and start making people's lives better. That to me is where the hope is.

You know, you said something earlier in the interview about how Trump almost tries to normalize the suffering and make people feel they're not worth anything. And when people feel so beaten down with no hope, that's when authoritarianism can really fester and prey on people's just lack of rising up and caring about these issues. So as you look forward, though, to your campaign, what's your message right now to Michigan? What's going to set you apart from the other Democratic candidates to restore that sense of hope? And why ultimately do you think you're the right person to go against the Republican candidate who seems to be Mike Rogers, MAGA Republican? Yeah, well, number one, it just shouldn't be this hard to get by in the richest, most powerful country in the world. And the people who have exploited that pain,

they're just making it worse. So we need somebody who's going to do two things. Number one, you've got to step up and fight back. I got receipts on my role as a fighter and I don't back down, but it's not just about fighting back. You got to know what you're going to fight for. And the thing about me is I'm not afraid to tell you what I think the world ought to look like, to give you a vision for what my leadership would mean in hard public policy. I wrote the book on Medicare for all. I know that corporations, the Fortune 500, have literally corrupted our politics for their profits against the kinds of opportunities that we need and deserve.

I'm fighting for an economy where one job is enough to feed a family, where it's the best possible place to start a small business and then take care of your workers and spend your money in your local community. And I know that I can take on Mike Rogers for a couple of reasons. Number one, Mike Rogers has served. And when he served, he served himself. And number two, dude's from Florida. He's not even from here. And the thing about it is it's fascinating watching all these MAGA Republicans who used to be the kind of country club Republicans who signed on to things like the war in Iraq. And the reality of it is we know who Mike Rogers is and people voted against him for Senate last

time for a reason. So here's what we got to do. We got to remember, we can't beat something with nothing. And so we've got to remember something, which is when you center the people who you're trying to serve, when you're able to speak truth to their pain and turn it into answers, and you're willing to speak those answers all over your state, you can win a race. And if that's something that resonates with folks out there, I hope that they'll check us out at abdulforsenate.com, be a part of this campaign. I don't take corporate PAC checks, so I rely on good folks like you. Well, everybody check it out. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate

you. I so appreciate you all having me and thank you for fighting the good fight. We appreciate you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers.