Pod Save America Host Faults Michigan Democrat's Tepid Senate Nominee Backing

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter and Pod Save America host, said Representative Haley Stevens gained nothing from a lukewarm CNN answer about Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan's Senate race, and would still be "tagged with being associated with Abdul." Election Day is seven days away.

Stevens endorsed El-Sayed right as the primary ended, after losing to him. Over the weekend, asked whether she was still fully behind him, she did not say his name. On the episode, recorded Monday afternoon, Lovett said the answer feeds a story of Democratic disunity in a race that could decide control of the Senate.

None of the hosts said Stevens had withdrawn her support. Their complaint was about her tone and her timing.

What Haley Stevens Said on CNN

On CNN, asked whether she was still fully behind El-Sayed, Stevens said: "Look, I'm on the Democratic ticket. You know, I can't say that I agree with everything that's gone on." She said she wanted to support "my next governor, Jocelyn Benson" and the Democrats working to make Hakeem Jeffries "the first black speaker of the House."

The interviewer pointed out that she had not mentioned El-Sayed in that answer. Stevens said, "I'm on the team."

From Endorsement to 'On the Team'

When she lost in August, Stevens sounded very different. Her Aug. 5 statement congratulated El-Sayed, a doctor and community health official, and said she was "proud to offer my support." It also warned that Donald Trump and Mike Rogers, the former congressman who is the Republican Senate nominee, wanted Democrats "tired and divided." The next day, she told CBS News that "the time for all this negative, nasty, the disunity stuff — it's over," adding, "We did the unity deal."

Favreau said the hosts had called her gracious after the primary. "This was kind of a confusing shift in tone from her," he said.

Lovett said the timing was the problem. "She's already endorsed. So a statement like this doesn't make you less for him. It just makes you less helpful," he said. Any leverage she had for concessions from El-Sayed was gone, he added: "So there's no strategic benefit to doing this in the week before the campaign." Instead, he said, it fed the idea of Democratic disunity. "So I just, it's of no value and only harm to me."

"So there's no strategic benefit to doing this in the week before the campaign." — Jon Lovett

"Yeah, I just don't, I don't understand why," Favreau said. If Stevens did not want to say she supported El-Sayed "100%," he said, "Don't do interviews."

Co-host Tommy Vietor recalled a CBS appearance in which, he said, Stevens was asked about campaigning side by side with El-Sayed and answered, "Whatever he wants me to do." CBS News' report on her Aug. 6 interview records a different answer. It says Stevens was evasive on whether she would appear with El-Sayed on the campaign trail, saying, "Abdul's got a big campaign to run," and "My focus here is, no Rogers. No Republicans." Vietor wondered aloud, "was there some falling out?" The hosts offered no evidence of one.

Why One Michigan Seat Matters for Senate Control

The race is close. PolitiKool's polling average puts El-Sayed at 48.3 percent and Rogers at 44.9 percent, a 3.4-point lead.

PolitiKool's Senate forecast rates control a toss-up, with eight races in that category.

Favreau warned Democratic voters who might leave the Senate line blank that, in one possible outcome, "we come one Michigan Senate seat short of losing the Senate." In that case, he said, they would regret it when Trump was "nominating a replacement for" Justice Samuel Alito "in the spring."

The exchange came during a segment on Trump's attacks on El-Sayed, who is Muslim. At a rally for Rogers, Trump called him a "jihadist Muslim brotherhood member" but offered no evidence that El-Sayed belongs to the group. Favreau said Rogers has pointed instead to an open letter El-Sayed signed to Egypt's new president after the Arab Spring. Vietor said both that letter and Rogers' own 2012 remarks about working with Egypt's new government were reasonable for the time. "It's all guilt by association," he said.

On Meet the Press, Rogers said, "I've never called him a terrorist." Vietor called that "a lie," saying Rogers had quote-tweeted a Dave Portnoy post calling El-Sayed a terrorist and written, "Portnoy is exactly right." Rogers also dodged repeated questions from host Kristen Welker about whether he is a MAGA Republican. Lovett said Rogers' strategy aims both to energize Republicans and to keep "potential Democratic voters to stay home."

What to Watch For Next

According to the hosts, Barack Obama spent much of his Michigan rally trying to bring wary Democrats behind El-Sayed. Whether Stevens joins that effort before Election Day is still an open question.