'This isn't working': Top Dem intervenes in MI Senate race feud

[0:00] Let's take you back now to Michigan, where that rift between two primary opponents [0:03] is calling into question democratic unity there. Earlier tonight, I spoke with Michigan Congresswoman [0:09] Debbie Dingell about the rift and reporting that the El-Sayed campaign disinvited his former [0:15] opponent Haley Stevens from a campaign event tomorrow. I am the one that talked to Haley, [0:22] and I am the one that said this isn't working. So I want to be really clear on that. But I think [0:28] that the amount of national attention that is being given to this relationship and all the, [0:36] you know, this pot stirring that's going, there's nothing to be gained by the two of them being in [0:42] the same place. CNN's Brian Todd is there in Michigan. He joins us live now. Brian, you've [0:49] been there on the ground today. You also spoke with Abdul El-Sayed. What have you learned? [0:57] Well, Jessica, as much as Abdul El-Sayed wants this entire controversy with Haley Stevens [1:01] to just go away and wants all the conversations about it to just go away, it's not going away. [1:07] He's had to field at least three questions from reporters at this campaign event here in [1:10] Sterling Heights today about this. And basically he was asked again if he was going to condemn [1:16] that ad in question to set the stage. This is an ad that was posted by an outside group [1:21] that supports Abdul El-Sayed, an ad which equates U.S. military aid to Israel with higher food [1:28] prices in the U.S. Now, Congresswoman Haley Stevens has pressed Abdul El-Sayed to condemn [1:33] that ad saying it's anti-Semitic and he should come out flat out against it. For days, Abdul [1:38] El-Sayed kind of dodged all of that, didn't really condemn it. Well, at this campaign event [1:42] a short time ago this afternoon, he didn't use the word condemn, but he came out with his strongest [1:47] statement yet against that ad saying that he does not agree with the contents of that ad. [1:53] In addition, he pretty much said himself without saying it directly what Debbie Dingle said. He [1:59] said he didn't want a distraction when he was asked if Haley Stevens should come to this event [2:04] tomorrow, this democratic unity event at a church here in Michigan with James Clyburn. She had [2:09] originally been slated to come and then it was decided that she would not come. Debbie Dingle says [2:15] she was the one who told Haley Stevens not to come. Our reporting is that Abdul El-Sayed asked her not [2:20] to come. But basically when he was asked about that this afternoon, he said, you know, asked whether [2:25] she should be attending these events with him. He said he didn't want any distractions from the [2:29] message. So basically saying he just doesn't want her around. Um, I asked him the question of whether [2:35] he thought Haley Stevens was harming, harming the democratic ticket by raising all this and putting [2:40] so much pressure on him in recent days. He kind of dodged that question. Here's what he had to say. [2:45] I like again, we are out here having conversation after conversation. I just really don't think any [2:52] of this matters. That's why I told you it's like not really of relevance to Michigan voters. Most [2:55] people don't care about this, right? Most people are worried right now about who is going to bring [2:59] down their prices. Most people are worried about whether or not they're going to be able to afford [3:03] their rent next month. And so the question of whether this is all harming the democratic ticket, [3:10] of course, is going to be answered on Tuesday. But right now, at least the latest poll that CNN and [3:14] ssrs has issued from october 20th to the 27th. That indicates that abdul al-sayed is up about seven [3:21] points on mike rogers. Uh, but abdul al-sayed has said in recent days he's running as if he's 10 points [3:27] behind michigan. We were just talking about how of course we know how essential it is that democrats [3:32] hold michigan and there's this late fight that has been breaking out between abdul al-sayed the [3:37] democratic nominee haley stevens who he vanquished in that august primary. They try to have this unity event [3:44] today to show that they were on the same page. That was called off amid this fight over this [3:49] outside groups ad that haley stevens called anti-semitic. She wanted al-sayed to denounce [3:57] and as a result it led to this whole back and forth over israel and things that really bubbled up during [4:02] the primary season and abdul al-sayed was asked about this just last night. I've already been clear [4:09] that that ad was not made by me and i do not agree with the contents of that ad. So if the next question [4:14] i'm just telling you if the next question is about this i'm going to go ahead and spend my time talking [4:18] to voters because that's what i'm trying to do right now. Jeff Zeleny how much does this fight [4:23] matter if at all in such a critical race? Well we'll find out if it matters to voters. I mean the reality [4:28] what uh his challenge is abdul al-sayed is to hold together the democratic uh coalition all of the [4:34] democratic uh coalition and in our time in michigan as late as uh this past week when i was there uh it is [4:41] unclear if it is holding. There are positive signs for democrats there's a bit of optimism but it's [4:46] cautious optimism and this fight at the very end of the campaign here uh it's not what most democratic [4:51] leaders want to see. I think that most voters are not uh all that interested in what haley stevens and [4:55] abdul al-sayed any sort of bad blood they have but the underlying issue here is the actual uh point is he [5:01] able to hold together this uh coalition or not uh i've talked to several people who think that she's gotten [5:09] some bad advice via congresswoman and she uh should basically uh zip it uh we'll see if that happens [5:15] uh she's not going to the event but the event is going on yeah and the event is important because [5:20] he's going out with um uh some black leaders of jim cliber and others and to try and rally support among [5:27] black voters that's a central question of michigan is he able to get a lot of african-american voters who [5:32] are essential in detroit and elsewhere on his side and we will see and you said why is she doing this [5:38] hailey stevens you know she sat down with the new york times she did this whole thing talking about [5:42] her concerns about abdul al-sayed and you're democratic leaders are just pulling their hair [5:46] out wondering why and perhaps one reason why is if you look at the polls the question was is your mind [5:51] made up on the michigan senate race yeah a lot of them are a vast majority 86 percent of likely voters [5:57] are but there are 14 percent of who are still persuadable right now yeah listen which is why uh [6:02] donald likes this feud happening which is like why mike rogers likes it as well and is sort of [6:08] embracing uh haley stevens and saying come on over they are hoping that uh democrats are uh sour on uh [6:16] abdul al-sayed in the in the you know last year particularly african-americans and jewish voters [6:21] haley stevens uh rightly or wrongly has sort of positioned herself as the voice of those two [6:27] constituents i have my questions about whether or not uh that's accurate we'll see on tuesday the folks [6:32] i've talked to particularly about african-american voters do think that abdul will do uh not as well [6:37] as the top of the ticket as uh benson but that he'll get enough maybe it'll be a two or three point [6:43] difference uh maybe she gives some coattails yeah maybe she gives some coattails but listen i do [6:48] think cliburn being there is important you remember cliburn in that uh primary was very critical of [6:54] abdul al-sayed saying why didn't he have any black folks in his crowd since then abdul al-sayed has done a [7:01] lot of work right he's had obama there he's had kamala harris uh there as well and uh so they think [7:06] in the end this kind of bickering which in some ways is a little bit one-sided you know it also [7:12] involves uh her partner haley stevens a fiance has given all sorts of interviews uh which is downright [7:19] has endorsed rogers yeah rogers yeah first has he been clear about that because the statement he [7:25] released on friday in response to haley stevens called out stevens not so much the ad and what [7:32] are the variables in the state that might have led to this clarity on saturday well this has obviously [7:40] been a very difficult election cycle for the michigan democratic party and michigan democrats [7:46] it's been very divisive and even you know three months after the stevens al-sayed primary ended with [7:52] al-sayed's victory these fishers are still there um was has he been clear about it i think he has [7:59] he's condemned it it's amazing you know this it's been called an ad but you know the data from ad impact [8:06] shows only about a thousand dollars has been spent on it i mean you know heck i i could do an ad for a [8:11] thousand dollars about something um the the rebellion pack that came up with has gotten enormous mileage out [8:18] of it because of the controversy for having spent uh so little but i i think he seems to have clearly [8:24] condemned it but it's just picking at these wounds from the primary uh and the primary was so focused [8:32] on the israel uh israel gaza conflict yeah and so beyond the ad and you talk about the the wounds in [8:40] the primary this is a democratic congresswoman debbie dingle here on cnn uh what she said about [8:47] um this rift between al-sayed and stevens and what she says she told representative stevens i am the one [8:56] that talked to haley and i am the one that said this isn't working so i want to be really clear on that [9:03] but i think that the amount of national attention that is being given to this relationship and all the [9:12] you know this pot stirring that's going there's nothing to be gained by the two of them being in the same [9:18] place and so we also heard that uh haley stevens was told to stay away from the campaign in these [9:25] final days we also heard from state senator uh mallory mcmurro who said asked rather what the hell [9:31] is is haley doing are these two um representative of the the democratic uh political um infrastructure [9:41] there they kind of all asking what haley stevens is doing or does she have anyone on her side in this [9:47] this argument well i haley stevens certainly has a lot of allies i don't know that she has a lot who [9:54] would say they're thrilled with how the last you know 48 to 72 hours has been handled uh this is not [10:03] you know something that the michigan democratic infrastructure is enjoying seeing i mean right [10:08] now you know you're a few days to the election a couple days to the election and no one in the [10:13] michigan democratic infrastructure wants to be talking about haley stevens and abdul al-sayad's [10:19] dislike for each other they want to be talking about beating mike rogers they want to be emphasizing [10:26] rogers ties to trump and so this is uh definitely been an unwelcome uh last uh 48 to 72 hours but i [10:35] thought that the comments from congresswoman dingle are you know pretty telling congressman dingle very very [10:40] powerful figure in michigan democratic politics doesn't surprise me at all that she's been the [10:45] emissary on this to try to shut this down and say you know what let's just go our separate ways here [10:51] or the two of you go your separate ways so we can keep our eyes on the prize there's supposed to be this [10:58] unity event today uh congressman jim cliburn uh coming to michigan what's the expectation if stevens [11:07] is not there that element of unity will will be absent but what are you expecting to see you know [11:16] i would say this that about two million votes in michigan have already been cast either via early [11:21] in-person voting or absentee ballot that's probably going to be about 45 of the total i don't as [11:27] fascinating as this is i'll raise my hand i i do personally find it fascinating uh i i don't think [11:33] the this continued animosity between stevens and elsayad is really going to affect the outcome here [11:40] short of stevens completely changing her tune she said she's voted for and was going to vote for elsayad [11:46] or already has you know unless she were to completely change her view on that i don't think this is going [11:52] to upend anything now in terms of unity event there will be a zillion democrats going to a zillion events [11:58] all across michigan across the next few days talking about how democrats are standing together and i think [12:03] everyone's just going to try it seems like in the michigan democratic party to just say you know [12:08] what let's just pretend like this never happened um you know it's not been helpful to them that's for [12:15] sure but i think they're just going to try to say you know let's just pretend ignore the problem for now [12:22] all right zach courtshow we are certainly going to be watching thanks so much for helping us understand [12:26] what's happening there in the state of michigan crucial if democrats want to take control of the senate