Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed turned a Fox News interview back on his host Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, pressing anchor Martha MacCallum again and again on whether the war in Iran has made Americans safer — until she stopped to remind him which of them was conducting the interview.
The exchange on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” began on terrorism. MacCallum challenged the Michigan candidate over whether his past remarks had suggested that victims of terror attacks were themselves to blame. His campaign has said it removed his social media posts about 9/11 and terrorism dating from before July 2023 so that old material could not be stripped of its context.
El-Sayed told MacCallum that those targeted in attacks are never responsible. “The victim is never at fault, and terrorism is wrong no matter who perpetrates the terrorism, who it is perpetrated against,” he said, adding that it has to be rooted out.
Sparring Over the Iran War
From there the two moved to the war itself. El-Sayed argued that war is a system of violence and asked why the United States is fighting in Iran, to what end and who stands to gain. MacCallum countered that Iran had built a huge threat in its neighborhood and had killed thousands of American citizens. El-Sayed replied that the big threat — the nuclear one — had already been contained.
MacCallum disputed that, saying Iran had been violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era nuclear agreement, by many estimations. El-Sayed answered that former President Barack Obama had secured a deal and that President Donald Trump later destroyed it. When MacCallum tried to break in as he returned to his central question, he told her he had not finished his point.
Gas Prices and the Strait of Hormuz
El-Sayed said the country could have chosen peace and instead chose war, leaving a situation at the Strait of Hormuz in which oil and gas cannot move. MacCallum cut in to say that was not true, pointing to 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.
Asked by El-Sayed why gas prices are so high, MacCallum fell back on Trump’s long-used line that prices were about to come down. El-Sayed shot back that drivers in his state are not seeing that at the pump, and said the average Michigander is weighing more than fuel costs: 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.
Turning the Tables on the Host
He then put the question directly to MacCallum, asking whether she was a fan of a war now in its eighth month. “I’m interviewing you,” she replied, saying she was not claiming to support the war but that an argument can be made it will make the United States safer.
That did not end it. El-Sayed pressed her on whether more war produces more threats or fewer, and when he did not get an answer, asked her again to tell him whether the fighting has made the country safer.
A Network Caught in the Middle
The clash landed at an awkward moment for the network. White House aides have privately complained to Fox News, fearing its coverage is boosting a left-wing candidate, and host Sean Hannity has been confronted on air about Trump’s repeated attacks on his longtime employer. The network also marked its 30th anniversary, with FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott ringing the Nasdaq Closing Bell.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, is drawing scrutiny from the same network he sparred with. He reportedly called Hasan Piker to warn that Piker’s rhetoric was costing votes, according to a report published Oct. 8, and the network’s Michigan coverage has highlighted Black voters and Jewish Democrats who say they are wary of backing him. The candidate, for his part, left the Fox News studio with his own question still hanging in the air.