Anchor Martha MacCallum had to stop at one point and remind her guest which of them was conducting the interview, after Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed turned a Fox News sit-down back on his host Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, pressing her again and again on whether the war in Iran has made Americans safer.

During the interview, MacCallum repeatedly pressed the Michigan candidate on whether he supported terrorist designations for Muslim Brotherhood organizations in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. El-Sayed did not directly answer, saying any organization engaged in or calling for political violence is engaged in terrorism.

The exchange on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” began on terrorism. MacCallum challenged El-Sayed on the question of whether his past remarks had suggested that victims of terror attacks were themselves to blame. Old material could not be stripped of its context, his campaign has said, explaining why it removed his social media posts about 9/11 and terrorism dating from before July 2023.

Those targeted in attacks are never responsible, El-Sayed told MacCallum, and terrorism has to be rooted out. “The victim is never at fault, and terrorism is wrong no matter who perpetrates the terrorism, who it is perpetrated against,” he said.

Clash Over the Iran War

War is a system of violence, El-Sayed argued, and he asked why the United States is fighting in Iran, to what end and who stands to gain. Iran had built a huge threat in its neighborhood and had killed thousands of American citizens, MacCallum countered.

The big threat — the nuclear one — had already been contained, El-Sayed replied. MacCallum disputed that, saying that by many estimates Iran had been violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era nuclear agreement. Former President Barack Obama had secured a deal that President Donald Trump later destroyed, El-Sayed answered. MacCallum tried to break in, and El-Sayed responded that he had not finished his point.

El-Sayed said the country could have chosen peace and instead chose war, and described the resulting situation at the Strait of Hormuz, with oil and gas unable to move. That was not true, MacCallum cut in to say, citing a Wall Street Journal piece she said showed the U.S. was nearly back to getting oil out of the strait and the wider region.

El-Sayed asked why gas prices were so high. MacCallum responded with Trump’s long-used line that prices were about to come down. Drivers in his state are not seeing that at the pump, El-Sayed shot back. Fuel costs are only part of what the average Michigander is weighing, he said, listing grocery prices, the 18 service members who lost their lives, and service members who were deployed and left stuck at sea without the resources or rations they needed.

El-Sayed also told MacCallum on Oct. 5, “Those public schools are deeply underfunded,” and, “We continue to pattern the way we pay taxes based on property tax.” Shawn Cooper, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, responded: “Mr. El-Sayed’s belief that property taxes are responsible for funding education in the classroom is simply incorrect.”

Turning the Tables

El-Sayed asked MacCallum directly whether she was a fan of a war now in its eighth month. “I’m interviewing you,” she replied; she was not claiming to support the war, she said, but an argument can be made that it will make the United States safer. El-Sayed pressed further on whether more war produces more threats or fewer. He received no answer and asked her again to tell him whether the fighting has made the country safer.

Network Caught in the Middle

The interview landed at an awkward moment for the network. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that Fox is “promoting the Dumocrats” and called MacCallum’s interview a “softball.” In a separate post on Oct. 7, Trump called El-Sayed a “RADICAL Extremist, terrorist Sympathizer” and said he is “WRONG for Michigan, and WRONG for America.”

Fox News Media President Jay Wallace told Axios of the Monday interview, “Someone didn’t necessarily like that,” and, “But that’s what we do.”

White House aides complained privately to Fox News, fearing the coverage was boosting a left-wing candidate. Several Republican operatives contacted Fox in August, after host Jesse Watters said, “you gotta respect Abdul because he beat the machine.” El-Sayed later used the Watters remark in an ad, describing him as an “unlikely validator.” Watters afterward told viewers, “I actually like Abdul. I probably shouldn’t like him, but I do.”

Asked by Mediaite about Trump’s jab at the network, host Sean Hannity called it “a throwaway comment.” Fox aired El-Sayed’s campaign ads 129 times in the first six days of October, roughly twice as often as they appeared on ESPN.

Jason Roe, a Michigan Republican strategist, said of the network: “They are doing him a favor,” and, “It’s only helping him reach center-right voters. But they are in business to make money, and he attracts eyeballs.”

Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott rang the Nasdaq closing bell on Tuesday, Oct. 6, a day before the network’s 30th anniversary.

Scrutiny and a Debate

El-Sayed reportedly called streamer Hasan Piker to warn that his rhetoric was costing votes, according to a CNN report published Oct. 7. Black voters and Jewish Democrats who say they are wary of backing him have featured prominently in Fox’s Michigan coverage.

Republican nominee Mike Rogers renewed his criticism of El-Sayed’s answers on terrorist groups at their Oct. 8 debate. El-Sayed declined at the same debate to identify Iran or Israel as the greater threat to the United States, saying both had proven dangerous in their own way.

Rogers also claimed at the debate that El-Sayed’s biggest funders come from a group that supports the Muslim Brotherhood. Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Oct. 11, whether he or his family had any ties to the Brotherhood, El-Sayed said, “No.” The Washington Free Beacon has since reported 2012 and 2013 social media posts in which his half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, wrote that her family had “long been MB.” El-Sayed’s campaign has called the accusations racist and untrue.