El-Sayed argued that the United States managed immigration enforcement before ICE was created in 2003, pointing to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.
“We were able to enforce our immigration policies without shooting people in the face and the back of the head,” El-Sayed said.
Watters immediately challenged the argument, noting that the INS had carried out many of the same immigration enforcement responsibilities before ICE replaced it.
The Fox News host then pressed El-Sayed with a straightforward question: How many illegal immigrants are currently living in the United States?
The conversation quickly turned into a back-and-forth, with both men speaking over one another as El-Sayed attempted to redirect the discussion.
“I mean, to your point –– Jesse, Jesse, let me just answer the question,” El-Sayed said. “To your point, we had far fewer under INS. … If you want to do that correlation, we have ICE now and we have far, far more undocumented people. So ICE is clearly not working.”
El-Sayed maintained that immigration was not the issue Michigan voters were most concerned about. Instead, he said residents were focused on the rising cost of everyday necessities.
He argued that Michigan families “are asking me about how they’re going to afford their gas and groceries.”
Watters, however, accused the Democrat of sidestepping the question as the interview continued to grow increasingly contentious.
The discussion later shifted overseas and into the ongoing conflict with Iran.
Watters asked El-Sayed whether he was “glad the ayatollah is dead,” referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the opening U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year.
El-Sayed said he would “never defend the Iranian regime,” but he sharply criticized the decision to go to war.
“I understand selective memory about history, but we had a JCPOA that was well negotiated, that actually had nuclear nonproliferation far more securely than we have right now after having gone to war for the better part of six months,” he continued.
The remark referred to the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement, commonly known as the JCPOA, which President Donald Trump withdrew from during his first term.
Watters fired back by arguing that the Iranian nuclear program had been dealt a devastating blow.
“Yeah, I like the fact that the nuclear program is buried under a mountain of rubble,” Watters countered.
El-Sayed was not persuaded.
“You understand that, like, nuclear material doesn’t just go away because you buried it under a mountain of rubble?” El-Sayed asked back. “You understand they can still go back and bury it out, right?”
Watters responded that the United States was monitoring the situation and warned that any attempt to recover or restart Iran’s nuclear program would be met with force.
The interview then took another dramatic turn when El-Sayed began targeting his Republican Senate opponent.
El-Sayed accused Rogers of avoiding a debate and challenged the congressman for not appearing on Watters’ program.
“Can we all agree that Mike Rogers is a beta?” El-Sayed said, drawing laughter from Watters. “Can we all agree with that? He won’t even come on your show. He’s afraid of getting grilled.”
The Democrat returned to the “beta” insult several times throughout the interview, attempting to portray Rogers as unwilling to face hostile questioning.
El-Sayed also accused Rogers of misunderstanding the nature of his campaign, claiming that the Republican “thinks he’s running against Hasan Piker,” the left-wing Twitch streamer who has supported and raised money for El-Sayed.
At one point, El-Sayed even suggested that his appearance on Watters’ show was a favor to the Fox News host.
The two men also sparred over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, reparations for descendants of freed slaves, the NFL and transgender medical procedures involving minors, including procedures critics have described as genital mutilation.
Despite the repeated interruptions and personal jabs, Watters ended the segment on a lighter note.
The Fox News host closed the contentious interview by telling his Democratic guest they would “do it again, Abdul.”
The exchange offered Michigan voters an early glimpse of the aggressive campaign El-Sayed appears prepared to run as he seeks to defeat Rogers in what could become one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate contests.
