NewsBusters Podcast: Abdul-Backing Media Unleash on Haley Stevens

Election Day beckons, and there's a November Surprise. Democrats and their media enablers were outraged that Democrat Rep. Haley Stevens offered a last-minute endorsement of Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race. Abdul-boosting journalists sounded like MS NOW host Jacob Soboroff, who denounced Rogers for "the incredible amount of Islamophobia and bigotry that has been put forward in this race, including by him himself."

Or his fellow MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, who bitterly tweeted:

 "Today, Haley Stevens endorsed Donald Trump's most savage policies—the brutalizing of Hispanics, the killing of US citizens in American streets, the launching of endless wars, the gutting of Michigander's health care, his war on civil rights, higher gas prices, more expensive groceries, less health care, and endless corruption. A vote for Mike Rogers is a vote for Donald Trump. End of story."

The New York Times first went after Stevens on Saturday in an article headlined "Why Haley Stevens Can't Stop Talking About Abdul El-Sayed," in which Times reporter Reid Epstein referred to as "Dr. El-Sayed" 24 times in the article. The paper treated the Stevens turnaround with a flurry of campaign stories gathered under the blunt headline, "Democratic Senate Primary Loser Endorses Republican in Michigan." Loser! 

The Free Press reminded readers on Monday that two years ago in Michigan, Elissa Slotkin welcomed in Liz Cheney and the Democrats held up signs reading "Country Over Party." The parties love to hug a defector, but that "country over party" line only goes one way. If you leave the Democrats, you're just a cynical "traitor." 

On NBC's Saturday Night Live, fake-news anchor Michael Che mocked Ted Cruz for suggesting a Senator El-Sayed could endanger people's lives, and then the comedian joked "Then he went back to the Senate to cut health care and food stamps." Then came the anti-Israel joke: "This week, a record number of people voted in Israel's election, which is great to see regardless of if you're on the right side, or the left side, or the genocide."

Speaking of political comedy, Alex Christy found the weeknight late-night shows devoted 87 percent of their jokes about Senate candidates to the Republicans.  The few jokes they made about Democrats were gentle, except a couple about Maine's Troy Jackson having kids with his second cousin. Ronny Chieng at Comedy Central joked: "Troy Jackson has been elected senator in Mississippi." Jimmy Fallon used an actress for routines mocking Susan Collins AND Darline Graham.

Finally, the network Sunday shows energetically downplayed the "Decoy Dan" Sullivan scandal in Alaska. David Becker on CBS said both sides do it: "We've seen Elon Musk bankroll Cornel West's presidential campaign in 2024."

Trevor Ault on ABC noted "reporting by The New York Times allegedly claimed that the Peltola campaign recruited that second Dan Sullivan to get on the ballot to try to siphon some votes away from the incumbent." He said "pretty much all the legal experts that we spoke to said it would not be illegal to recruit another Dan Sullivan to join the ballot. He added" it doesn't seem to really be swinging the needle a ton...they're not really treating this as a massive scandal."

Enjoy the podcast on video below. The audio is here.