Though the Raiders lost in the end, they showed grit to go toe-to-toe with the Chiefs. This week's Ballers kept Las Vegas in it to the end.

MRC Graphic How can you tell if an interview's tough or soft? When interviewing Trump, the host will interrupt repeatedly to challenge him. When interviewing a Democrat, the answers can go on for 300 words without interruption -- a small speech. Look at NBC's Meet The Press host Kristen Welker badgering Trump, and it's nothing like her softball session with Abdul el-Sayed.MRC Business Associate Editor Joseph Vazquez and longtime NewsBusters contributor Mark Finkelstein joined the show to discuss the weekend in politics.On Sunday, Welker began by asking two questions to help Abdul negotiate out of embarrassment for earlier comments attacking Barack Obama -- who's now coming to Michigan to campaign for him. His first two answers were both over 320 words. Later, when Welker asked about his "hurt people hurt people" excuse for a man attacking a Michigan synagogue, his answer was 382 words. When Welker tried to help him deny his family had any connections to the terrorism-backing Muslim Brotherhood, one answer was 479 words. Also: On CNN on Sunday, Jake Tapper might have thought he was going to put the DHS Secretary on the spot. Instead, Markwayne Mullin unloaded a fact wagon on State of the Union.  The topic was ICE's operation against Oscar Belgal, an illegal Dominican immigrant wanted on multiple charges. Incredibly, Tapper rushed to defend the illegal immigrant and his fears. On his MS NOW show PoliticsNation on Saturday, longtime ambulance-chaser Rev. Al Sharpton added radical DSA Congresswoman-In-Waiting Darializa Avila Chevalier to the trash-ICE effort. She wanted the New York City police commissioner to resign because...she listed the illegal alien's criminal offenses in a press conference. The elitist media are highly suspicious of Christianity, unless a Democrat decides to use it as a political strategy, as in Rev. Raphael Warnock or James Talarico. Jon Karl of ABC traveled to Kansas and met with Senate candidate Adam Hamilton for This Week. The purpose of this interview was to establish Hamilton as a reasonable centrist. Karl asked Hamilton to respond to Vice President Vance charging that Hamilton displayed "left-wing radicalism dressed in the skin suit of our religion."Finally, the content cops at NewsGuard actually called out partisan content factories like Courier Newsroom -- a lefty fake news collective funded by George Soros to the tune of at least $20 million — and how it has been seeping into the messaging of a litany of campaign ads used by Democrat “candidates and political action committees.” This week, the outfit reportedly “identified seven video ads for key races in Iowa, Ohio, and Alabama featuring on-screen citations of” what it dubs as “pink slime websites.”Enjoy the video podcast below. The audio is here.  

MS NOW/SnapStream MS NOW’s Morning Joe has a new promotional advertisement out with less than a month to go until the midterm elections. The interview seemed proud of the liberal morning show’s interviews with some candidates, like Michigan’s Democratic nominee for Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, and the Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon, a member of the DSA. The short ad began with clips of co-host Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski reading the names of four selected candidates.Scarborough began, “Abdul El-Sayed.” Brzezinski added, “Cait Conley,” the Democrat House candidate facing current GOP Representative Mike Lawler in New York.In the El-Sayed interview featured in the ad, Scarborough said criticism of El-Sayed’s relationship with Hasan Piker was “bullshit,” as he also asked El-Sayed, “Do you fish?”  A new ‘Morning Joe’ promo on MS NOW seems to be proud of the liberal morning show’s softball interviews with Democratic midterm candidates, with the line “The Midterms Start on Morning Joe.”The ad also features far-left candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Angie Nixon. pic.twitter.com/Umc1jbH4HY— Nick (@nspin310) October 12, 2026 The next two candidates introduced were the main Democrat nominees in Texas, as Brzesinki introduced “James Talarcio,” and Scarborough did the same for “Gina Hinojosa.”Laughably, the promo on screen read “The Questions That Matter,” before a clip of Scarborough played when he asked El-Sayed, “What is it that’s hurting people in Michigan the most?”The network ad then declared, “The Midterms Start on Morning Joe,” as co-host Willie Geist, employed by both MS NOW and NBC, threw a softball to the Florida DSA-affiliated candidate for Senate: “What is, do you think, the power of your message?The placement of the DSA candidate in the promo was notable, especially after, back in June, Morning Joe downplayed the DSA after the victory of far-left candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier in a New York Democratic House primary.Just a few days later in June, the morning program spent nearly 20 minutes on the rise of the DSA and its controversies.In August, the MS NOW program, acting as if it were an arm of the Democratic National Committee, then shifted to urge Democrats to unite and support the far-left, as co-host Jonathan Lemire used the phrase, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”Notably, the advertisement omitted the many softballs with former Maine Democratic nominee for Senate, Graham Platner, that occurred before he had to drop out over mounting controversies and allegations.In May, a Platner interview largely ignored the then-candidate's controversies, like his Nazi tattoo, in what could be described as a love-fest. Scarborough then even related himself to Platner, and said, “It's what happened to me. I actually, I had party leaders working against me around the clock. Said I was too radical to get elected.” After the allegations began to sink Platner’s campaign, Brzezinski grilled a Politico reporter who helped break the opening allegations. Scarborough and Brzezinski then warned Democrats about the candidate switcheroo and continued to defend Platner until his name got out of the news cycle.Morning Joe is definitely the place to go for Democrats if they want a complete softball interview before the midterm elections.The transcript for the promo is below. Click "expand":MS NOW Morning Joe PromoOctober 12, 20261:59:56 PM Eastern(15 seconds)[Music Playing]JOE SCARBOROUGH: Abdul El-Sayed MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Cait Conley.James Talarico.SCARBOROUGH: Gina Hinojosa.[On Screen: The Questions That Matter]What is it that’s hurting people in Michigan the most?[On Screen: The Midterms Start on Morning Joe]WILLIE GIEST: What is, do you think, the power of your message?Morning Joe Proud of Midterm Candidate Softballs in New Show Promo(...)

Joe Scarborough Elise Jordan Morning Joe 10-6-26 When Morning Joe concludes its run one day, a new career opportunity looms for Joe Scarborough: Democratic campaign consultant. Joe's been at it for some time now in a volunteer [we presume!] capacity. Last month, for example, we caught him suggesting a bumper sticker slogan for Angie Nixon, the democratic socialist Florida senatorial candidate.Scarborough was back at it on Tuesday's show. This time, his "client" was Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senatorial candidate from Michigan. When Scarborough heard from Elise Jordan that El-Sayed is having a tough time with Jewish Democrats in Michigan, Scarborough had a brilliant suggestion: go on a synagogue tour! Elise Jordan had sat down with two groups of conflicted Michigan Democrats. Her takeaway was that black Democrats in Wayne County are persuadable, and that a campaign appearance by President Obama alongside El-Sayed should be huge. The Oakland County Jewish Democrats, she said, are a different case. "There's very little that will make them budge at this point." A clip was played of a Jewish Democrat in Michigan saying that her daughter, who attends law school in Detroit, has to hide being Jewish. The woman said she might vote for Republican Mike Rogers, and apologized to her fellow Democrats: "Sorry, guys." Another member of the group told her not to apologize. "You deserve to vote and be comfortable." Jordan said the line that kept coming up in the group was El-Sayed's own video after the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, when a man rammed a pickup into the synagogue while a school was in session. "[El-Sayed] had in it the line, 'hurt people hurt people.' That came up repeatedly. They fear that he is not the ally that they need for Israel policy, but also they're really concerned about antisemitism and feel threatened right now, especially in the aftermath of that attack." But not to worry, Abdul! Consultant Scarborough has the solution! "Just the politician in me, I hear people talking about me that way, 'I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks in synagogues. I'm going to go around. I'm going to let people see me face to face, let them understand who I am. Job one will be making your daughter feel safe at law school, making your children feel safe when they go to fifth grade, making your grandmother and grandfather feel safe walking down the streets of Detroit or elsewhere in Michigan. That's what I would do.'" Problem: the first thing El-Sayed did after condemning the Temple Israel attack was to feel the pain of the man who carried it out: "hurt people hurt people."   El-Sayed Consultant Scarborough Tells Him: Go Campaign in Synagogues! pic.twitter.com/3SW3sBNW7j— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) October 6, 2026 Scarborough then half-withdrew the advice. Jordan had been in the room, he said, and it sounded as if she were saying don't bother with the synagogue tour: "even that won't make a difference." Jordan didn't quite say that. She said a round of synagogue visits might still create "some headway." What those voters want to hear, she said, is simpler than a listening tour, and El-Sayed has not been willing to say it straight: that Israel has a right to exist.Scarborough's plan is two weeks in synagogues and a promise that safety comes first. Jordan's report is that the candidate still answers the basic question as to Israel's right to exist with a "yes, but." The mother whose daughter is forced to hide her Judaism at a Detroit law school is unlikely to be reassured if El-Sayed adopts Scarborough's synagogue shtick. Oddly, one thing that wasn't mentioned in the clip of the Jewish focus group, or in Jordan's description of it, was El-Sayed's close association with Hasan Piker, someone who has called for the elimination of the state of Israel. Here's the transcript. MS NOW Morning Joe 10/6/26 6:31 am EDTMICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC JEWISH FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: My daughter goes to University of Detroit-Mercy. She's in her second year of law school, and she has to hide being Jewish. And it's a hard thing to say. When October 7th came, horrible for her, lots of tears. I may go to Mike Rogers. Sorry, guys. SECOND MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC JEWISH FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: It's okay. You should not apologize. No, you should not apologize. You deserve to vote and be comfortable. ELISE JORDAN: So these were two of the most conflicted group of voters that I've ever sat down with. Now, I think the Wayne County Democrats, I think they will come along. And I think that President Obama coming and campaigning with Abdul El-Sayed is going to be huge. And I do think at the end of the day, that group of voters, they're still persuadable, and they just need to be introduced. Now, the Oakland County Jewish Democrats, there's very little that will make them budge at this point. The aftermath of the Temple Israel attack back in West Bloomfield in March. And then Abdul El-Sayed made, he had did a video, and he had in it the line, "hurt people will hurt people." That came up repeatedly. They fear that he is not the ally that they need for Israel policy, but also they're really concerned about antisemitism and feel threatened right now, especially in the aftermath of that attack. JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, Elise, you know, just the politician in me, I hear people talking about me that way, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks in synagogues. I'm going to go around. I'm going to let people see me face to face, let them understand who I am. We understand that, you know, job one will be making your daughter feel safe at law school, making your children feel safe when they go to fifth grade, making your grandmother and grandfather feel safe walking down the streets of Detroit or elsewhere in Michigan. That's what I would do. But, my gosh, you were in the room and it actually sounds like you're basically saying, don't bother, even that won't make a difference. JORDAN: I think he could make some headway, still. These voters really want to hear just unequivocally that Israel has a right to exist. And the question has been posed to El-Sayed on numerous occasions. And he does give a version of saying, yes, but, and he goes into democracy, and that all citizens need to be able to vote. And he gives an answer that is not as straightforward as these voters expect and, frankly, need to hear to feel safe these days.

With about three weeks to go before a critical midterm election, you can always count on the Elitist Media to project Democrats in the best possible light. Such was the case for NBC. as Kristen Welker sat down with Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed, for what amounted to a ritual warm tongue bath.The most notable part of the interview is what it omits: El-Sayed’s loudest surrogate, champagne socialist streamer Hasan Piker. Welker did not ask a single question about El-Sayed’s relationship with Piker or about any of Piker’s past controversial statements. Neither did Welker address Piker’s presence at El-Sayed’s primary victory party. They addressed the elephant in the room by pretending it wasn’t there at all.Instead, Welker and El-Sayed devoted a significant part of the interview to walking back El-Sayed’s past swipes at Former President Barack Obama, which occupied six out of the 32 minutes of the full interview uploaded to YouTube. Watch as El-Sayed goes from calling Obama a failure to all but calling him “Daddy:” Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed, 2012: Obama is a failureEl-Sayed, 2026: Obama is my Daddy pic.twitter.com/mGmMSP6kSC— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 11, 2026 KRISTEN WELKER: You have been critical, though, of President Obama after voting for his reelection in 2012. You wrote, quote, "Obama was not the right choice. He just wasn't the wrong one. This leader has perpetrated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on." Do you still see President Obama's presidency as a failure?ABDUL EL-SAYED:  Well, we've lived through two Trump terms now. So, look, I know that President Obama was handed a really difficult set of circumstances, and he did his best. I also want to step back. Kristen, are your parents still with us? WELKER: They are. Thank goodness. EL-SAYED: Thank goodness. Mine are too. And I think about my dad. I wouldn't have my life before my dad's efforts so grateful for him. At the same time, there's a lot of things about my dad I’d do differently, right? And it's because when you intensely appreciate somebody who's done so much to make something that you're doing possible, you're both going to see the best of them, and you're also going to see the things that you'd want to change. I can't say how much I appreciate President Obama. I've read everything he's written twice. And it's because he was the president of my 20s. I mean, it was the first time I ever saw myself in politics. I remember when he gave that 2004 commencement speech- excuse me, DNC speech. And I’ve never seen politics look like that. He showed me something in myself I would never have seen without him. I mean, he has run the elegance, the grace, the commitment under pressure, the- just the basket of terrible things he was handed by the Bush era. Whether it was a failing economy, wars, a healthcare system that was deeply broken, and the way that he handled it all. Now, that is so much appreciation for what he showed me and me, what he showed our country, the fact that he went first. And also, there are so many things that I point to and say, I wish we could have that again. But my job is to step up and pick up the baton and run as hard as I can. Welker came in for some mild pushback but El-Sayed was allowed to run free, volunteering his unsolicited support for Obama’s ill-fated Cuba deal: Left on the @MeetThePress cutting room floor: Abdul El-Sayed gushing over Obama's Cuba deal pic.twitter.com/hnTQFttDlH— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 11, 2026 The exchange on Obama was followed up by Medicare for All. Here, Welker gave El-Sayed some very mild follow-up after he offered up his own version of “if you like your healthcare you can keep your healthcare” and immediately backtracked by saying it was up to the insurance companies.  The interview then covered, in order: tariffs (“NAFTA is a cancer”), impeachment, John Fetterman, his “hurt people hurt people” justification of the jihadist that attacked Temple Israel, and a rebuttal of Mike Rogers linking him to the Muslim Brotherhood. The edited-for-broadcast-on-NBC portion of the interview cuts off here. Welker then proceeds to ask El-Sayed whether billionaires should exist. El-Sayed responds to that socialist dog whistle by proclaiming support for a tax on wealth over $100 million dollars. Abdul El-Sayed: I am not a socialistAlso El-Sayed: I support a tax on wealth over $100MInteresting what gets left on the cutting room floor at @MeetThePress pic.twitter.com/uygadZhbW6— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 11, 2026 WELKER: I have a couple more questions and I know we're almost out of time. I do want to talk about the economy. You have said “I'd rather have an economy that makes a thousand millionaires than one billionaire. Do you think billionaires should exist?”EL-SAYED: I think billionaires should pay their fair share back into the system. I believe that means we have to pass a wealth tax. I think when you start taxing billionaire wealth, you have the opportunity to return trillions of dollars back to the economy to allow other people to participate.I think right now about kids going to school in Detroit, they're going to school in buildings that look like they did 50 years ago. I don't know that they have the opportunities to be able to go and become that millionaire. So what should we do? I think we should tax billionaire wealth, take some of that money, bring it back to public education, take some of that money, build schools and roads, provide health care, provide childcare. I'm a capitalist, but I believe that too many people can't participate in capitalism because what we have right now is actually corporatism. And if we're not serious about actually making sure everybody can participate in capitalism, then we're not serious about capitalism. WELKER: You talk about a wealth tax and some people get nervous that that's going to impact them. EL-SAYED: Well, if you’re a billionaire you should get nervous. That's going to impact them.WELKER: Where's the cutoff and what's the percentage? EL-SAYED: $100 million, right?WELKER: Only people with $100 million.EL-SAYED: If you were to tax people with $100 million or more, a wealth tax. We’re not even talking about a serious wealth- I just want to think this through, okay? Imagine you tax based on wealth based on what your money made last year. If you're a billionaire, you don't make your money off of the money you earn working. You make your money off of your money. So if you're a billionaire earning 10% on your billion, you're making $100 million. So even if we tax you at 8%, you know what you still made? $20 million, doing nothing. You're going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. I think the rest of us need to know that our kids get good schools. We need to know that our roads and bridges work. We need to know that we can actually participate in this thing so that those kids in those schools in Detroit can actually say, you know what? Someday, I'm going to start a business and I'm going to be a millionaire. This is a moment where a Republican under similar circumstances would have been grilled. El-Sayed certainly warranted a follow-up here after screaming from the rooftops that he is not a socialist. But Welker offered El-Sayed no pushback on the wealth tax, instead going straight to court-packing: In the full interview posted online, @kwelkernbc forwarded another Kamala Harris proposal to @AbdulElSayed: “Former Vice President Harris has called on Democrats to expand the Supreme Court from nine to thirteen justices the next time Democrats have full control of government. Would you vote to expand the Supreme Court?” (Answer: Yes.) FWIW, this question came before the “too big to fail” one which aired on the broadcast Meet the Press.— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) October 11, 2026 This was followed by an exchange on whether 2026 needed to be “too big to rig,” which proves all the caterwauling about election denialism to be hypocritical (this portion made it to air). NBC’s @kwelkernbc relayed to @AbdulElSayed some Kamala Harris fearmongering: “You recently campaigned with former Vice President Harris, who said ‘Democrats have got to turn out the votes in large numbers, we’ve got to be too big to rig.’ Do you agree that Democrats need to make the election, quote, ‘too big to rig’?”— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) October 11, 2026 There was a question on 2028 which El-Sayed deflected and, finally, the big “is America ready for a Muslim President:” “Finally, last question: Do you think that America is ready for a Muslim President?” – @kwelkernbc to @AbdulElSayed in portion of interview posted online but not aired on @MeetThePress https://t.co/93ZKtZ6dnx— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) October 11, 2026 This was not an interview, so much as a friendly exchange of ideas and an opportunity for El-Sayed to perform significant image rehab ahead of the midterm election. There was never a wide-eyed outburst from Welker here, no cutting El-Sayed off, no squinting and pointing at him with her pen and no seven followups to a tough question (there were no tough questions) with her customary “to put a fine point on it.” Par for the course for the Elitist Media, still putting their thumbs on the scale in order to affect the balance of power in Washington.

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