Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed pressed Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum again and again on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, to say whether the war in Iran has made Americans safer.
MacCallum answered by reminding him which of them was running the interview. “I’m interviewing you,” she said. The exchange played out on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”
The Deleted 9/11 Posts
MacCallum opened on terrorism and challenged the Michigan candidate over whether his past remarks had suggested victims of terror attacks were themselves to blame.
His campaign said it had removed his social media posts about 9/11 and terrorism dating from before July 2023. The campaign said it did so to keep the old material from being stripped of its context.
“The victim is never at fault, and terrorism is wrong no matter who perpetrates the terrorism, who it is perpetrated against,” El-Sayed said in the interview. He said terrorism has to be rooted out.
El-Sayed called war a system of violence. He asked why the United States is fighting in Iran, to what end, and who stands to gain.
MacCallum said Iran had built a huge threat in its neighborhood and had killed thousands of American citizens. El-Sayed said the big threat, the nuclear one, was already contained.
MacCallum said Iran had been violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era nuclear agreement, by many estimates. El-Sayed said former President Barack Obama secured that deal and President Donald Trump later destroyed it.
Gas Prices and the Strait
MacCallum tried to break in as El-Sayed returned to his central question. He told her he had not finished his point.
El-Sayed said the country chose war over peace. He said oil and gas cannot move through the Strait of Hormuz, and MacCallum cut in to say that was not true. She cited a Wall Street Journal piece she said showed the U.S. nearly back to getting oil out of the strait and the wider region.
El-Sayed asked why gas prices are so high. MacCallum answered with Trump’s long-used line that prices were about to come down, and El-Sayed said drivers in his state are not seeing that at the pump.
El-Sayed said the average Michigander is weighing more than fuel costs. He pointed to grocery prices, the 18 service members who lost their lives, and service members deployed and left stuck at sea without the resources or rations they needed.
El-Sayed then asked MacCallum directly whether she is a fan of a war now in its eighth month. MacCallum said she was not claiming to support the war, and said an argument can be made that it will make the United States safer.
El-Sayed pressed her on whether more war produces more threats or fewer. He got no answer, and he asked her again to say whether the fighting has made the country safer. He walked out of the Fox News studio with his own question still hanging in the air.
Trump Calls the Interview a ‘Softball’
The clash came at an awkward moment for the network. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that Fox is “promoting the Dumocrats,” and he called MacCallum’s interview a “softball.”
Fox News Media President Jay Wallace later told Axios the network has no plans to stop airing such interviews. White House aides have complained privately to Fox News, fearing its coverage is boosting a left-wing candidate.
Fox News host Sean Hannity has been confronted on air about Trump’s repeated attacks on his longtime employer. The network marked its 30th anniversary on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott rang the Nasdaq Closing Bell.
Personal Attacks in Grand Rapids
El-Sayed and Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a former congressman, held their first Senate debate on Thursday, Oct. 8, in Grand Rapids. The two traded personal attacks.
El-Sayed reportedly called Hasan Piker to warn that Piker’s rhetoric was costing votes, according to a CNN report published Oct. 7. Fox News’ Michigan coverage has highlighted Black voters and Jewish Democrats who say they are wary of backing him.