Ex-Sanders Aide Calls Abdul El-Sayed's Barack Obama 'Dad' Answer 'Uninspiring'

Briahna Joy Gray, host of the Bad Faith podcast and national press secretary for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign, faulted Abdul El-Sayed for how he has handled his past criticism of Barack Obama. In the episode, she called his answer "really uninspiring."

This is the left criticizing one of its own. El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, is a leading Medicare for All advocate and one of the progressive movement's best-known candidates this year. Obama is set to rally with him in Detroit on Saturday, the first day of Michigan's early in-person voting.

Gray's complaint was about how El-Sayed framed the answer, not about his candidacy. She said he should have stood by what he wrote.

She said she wanted him to add: "My goal is to get Medicare for All actually passed, not just to become a senator to be another Democratic senator."

What El-Sayed Said About Obama

The criticism dates to an earlier column. In it, El-Sayed wrote that "this leader has perpetuated 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," TheWrap reported.

NBC's Meet the Press asked him about the column on October 11. "I was younger, right? And I was angry about circumstances," El-Sayed said. He compared Obama to his father, saying there were things he would do differently. He also said, "You grow up, and you start to appreciate just how hard change is," theGrio reported.

| | Then | Now |
|---|---|---|
| On Obama | Column: Obama "perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people" than any president before him | Oct. 11, 2026, Meet the Press: "I was younger, right? And I was angry about circumstances" |
"The question is, when we're talking about bending the knee, who is doing the bending?" she asked. She said reporters question El-Sayed about his past views while Obama is never asked about his.

She also asked: "Why does Abdul El-Sayed have to say anything to put a gloss on his past opinions?" In her view, he could have told voters he disagrees with Obama on health care, drone strikes and Gaza and still welcomed his help.

Her guest, David Sirota, founder of The Lever and a speechwriter for Sanders' 2020 campaign, defended El-Sayed. "I appreciated that as far as I saw, Abdul did not renounce his past criticism," he said. He described the candidate as "in an uncomfortable position" and "trying to put a positive spin on it without renouncing his past criticism."

Sirota put more of the blame on Obama: "Obama doesn't take questions from anybody." He said the deal was Obama's celebrity in exchange for El-Sayed going easy on the past. "I have not heard Abdul El-Sayed offer policy concessions to Barack Obama," Sirota said.

The Medicare for All Question

Gray then turned to health care. She read from a Vox article saying El-Sayed now backs a version of Medicare for All that would let people keep private insurance. The article quoted him: "as long as it reduces the power of healthcare corporations, expands healthcare and does so publicly, I'm for it."

Sirota countered that Medicare for All is "the central tenet of his campaign." Gray was not reassured.

What's at Stake in Michigan

El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers by 3.4 points in PolitiKool's polling average, 48.5 percent to 45.1 percent. Conservative media host Megyn Kelly has said the Muslim Brotherhood line of attack on El-Sayed is not a fruitful strategy.

Gray said El-Sayed's stated logic for campaigning with Obama and Kamala Harris is that he is flagging with Black voters. El-Sayed beat Rep. Haley Stevens by less than a point in the August primary. Stevens won Wayne County, home to Detroit, about 51 percent to 45 percent, the Associated Press reported. Kamala Harris campaigned with El-Sayed in September.

The answer El-Sayed gives in Detroit on Saturday, next to Obama, will be the one the left is listening for.