LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Abdul El-Sayed is one of the breakout figures of the newly elected Democratic Congress. Voters in Michigan elected the epidemiologist and former public health official to serve in the Senate. He will be the first Muslim to join the Upper Chamber come January. That victory did not come easy, though. Republicans, including President Trumps (ph), viewed a bigoted vitriol against him. Members of his own party thought he leaned too far left. With all that behind him now, I sat down with Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed as part of our Newsmakers series to hear what comes next and why he wants new leadership in the Senate.
ABDUL EL-SAYED: I deeply appreciate Senator Schumer. He and I built a partnership over the course of, you know, my campaign. He was very, very supportive of that campaign. I'm grateful for that. But this is about leadership for the American public. And if all we do is kind of go back to what we've been doing in a moment where we've been given a mandate, I worry that we may not earn our mandate.
FADEL: So you see Senator Schumer as a leader of the past, not the future?
EL-SAYED: I think the American public has been very clear about that, and I think we need to move forward into a future where we're taking the reins and fighting to win.
FADEL: Do you have concerns that this moment that your party has could be squandered?
EL-SAYED: Absolutely. People are fed up with politics generally, and they have very temporarily put their trust in us. What we do next dictates whether or not they want to continue to trust us. They just asked you - tapped you in to go and help. Go help. There is no point to these jobs, aside from doing the things that the public needs you to do.
And right now, people are struggling under the weight of an affordability crisis that is crushing them at every single turn. I think we put the political strategy secondary and say, what are the things we need to do to solve those problems that sit in the lives of everyday people? And if we've done that, the politics will solve themselves.
FADEL: OK. So let's talk about what's possible because you are going into a divided government, which historically a lot doesn't get done. So I just want to tick through a lot of the top issues that drove so many voters to understand what you think you can really get done with the Trump administration. Can you make things more affordable in the months ahead?
EL-SAYED: Yes.
FADEL: How?
EL-SAYED: End the war. Stop the tariffs.
FADEL: Can you expand healthcare?
EL-SAYED: Yes.
FADEL: How?
EL-SAYED: Make sure Medicaid tax cuts don't take hold, bring back the ACA subsidies and then start toward the path of Medicare for All. There's a public consensus that we should be guaranteeing healthcare here. Then there's a political consensus that says we can't. Now, the only reason that there's a difference between the public consensus and the political consensus - meaning both parties - is somebody's money. It is pharma money. It is insurance money. I stood up against that money. If we put down a bill tomorrow that said we were going to eliminate all the gaps in Medicare and we were going to extend it to children and people under 55, that thing would have 95% support in the public. Let's go do it.
FADEL: But it has to have that support in Congress.
EL-SAYED: Sure. And then I dare Donald Trump to veto. I dare him. Because if you want to make the argument that Democrats want to deliver for you, do that. Make him veto it. Make him. I bet you he'll put his name on it. He'll probably pass it.
FADEL: You faced a really ugly campaign against you that really leaned on bigoted tropes about your ethnicity, your religion, and that started at the top. You know, you had the president of the United States saying, you're a Jihadist lunatic. And Republican - now colleagues - in the Senate saying things about you, as well. Can you work with people who were spewing such vitriol against you?
EL-SAYED: You know, this is not the first time I heard any of that. I don't really care what you've said about me in the past. I care that people in Michigan have healthcare, that they can afford their gas and groceries and that we're building an America that is befitting of the American dream.
FADEL: So you would sit down with, like, say, Senator Ted Cruz, who called you a Jihadist leprechaun...
EL-SAYED: Sure.
FADEL: ...And said...
EL-SAYED: If he wants to help us get money out of politics, put money in pockets to pass Medicare for All, sure.
FADEL: You recently called President Trump the dumbest effing guy who ever was president.
EL-SAYED: True.
FADEL: You've also said Democrats should drop the decorum and treat the president as the unserious fool that he is.
EL-SAYED: True.
FADEL: Why are you taking that approach?
EL-SAYED: Because he's a bully, alongside being a narcissist. And the only way you deal with bullies is to stand up to them. They bully you because it makes them feel strong. And the way you take on a bully is to bully back because then they learn that this does not make them feel strong. It makes them feel weak, and they don't like to feel weak. And so I think it's important for us to stand up to him.
FADEL: Do you think this could just push him away? - this type of approach, calling him dumb and unserious.
EL-SAYED: No, because he cannot stand being disliked. So his biggest incentive now - you know, I'm going to say this and it's probably going to reach his desk, and he won't be able to resist it - he wants me to like him. So, Donald...
FADEL: You think he wants you to like him?
EL-SAYED: ...Call my office. We can have a meeting.
FADEL: There was another moment in your victory speech where you referred to the vice president as JD Habibi, and it's really become kind of a touchstone, right? There are hats being made. There are T-shirts being made. There are explainers being written by The Associated Press, like, it means beloved, but it can mean bro or pal. Did you know when you said that, that it was going to become this thing?
EL-SAYED: You know, it's funny. Normally, when I speak, I speak off the cuff. I knew there was a lot I needed to get through in that speech, so I actually wrote the speech. Habibi wasn't in the speech. But it was one of those moments where, you know, JD Vance is a very particular kind of politician who represents the worst of the instincts of our politics because he is so focused on his own ascension. And so when I said it, like, it was almost like, I'm so sorry for you. You know, you have mercilessly attacked me for this thing about me that I'm actually really quite proud of. You know, I love my heritage, and it makes me no less American than you. So welcome to this moment where you are forced to reckon with the fact that both your politics lost, and they're ugly on their own terms.
And I think, you know, that sort of sense of both I empathize for you because somewhere along the line, somebody should've loved you harder, and also, I'm going to tag you at this so you'll never, ever be able to escape the fact that people are going to call you an Arabic word in your politics.
FADEL: What will it be like to be sworn in by him?
EL-SAYED: You know, I hope he doesn't make it awkward. I won't (laughter).
FADEL: Have you decided what you're going to swear in on?
EL-SAYED: I will likely swear in a Quran. Which Quran, we - we're not sure. I mean, Thomas Jefferson had a copy of a Quran. There's also - the University of Michigan holds the first Quran in the state of Michigan. It's very, very old, and that might be the choice. And whatever my name is, however I pray, it's not the book that you swear on. It's the book you swear allegiance to.
Yesterday, I got to spend a little bit of time in the National Archives with the original copy of the Constitution. And, you know, it was one of those moments where I was like, this document is the reason that no matter how I pray, that I could run for office and that the folks in my state could elect me. Not every country has that, and, like, we should not take it for granted.
FADEL: Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed or Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
EL-SAYED: Leila Fadel...
FADEL: Thank you for your time.
EL-SAYED: Thank you for the lovely interview.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: In my full Newsmakers interview with El-Sayed, he talks about possible Democrat-led investigations of the Trump administration and why he's never shied away from embracing his name, religion and ethnicity. You can watch the video on YouTube, Spotify and npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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