U.S. Senate Race in Michigan: Full Debate

[0:00] This is a special edition of The Pulse, the United States Senate debate. [0:05] Live from our Fox 2 studio, here's Roop Raj. [0:09] Good evening and welcome to Studio C. [0:11] Less than two months until Election Day, and all eyes, of course, are on the race for U.S. Senate in Michigan. [0:16] Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed squaring off against Republican Mike Rogers with control of Congress on the line. [0:22] Now, if you watch The Pulse often, you've heard us say before, this show is all about people, power, and politics. [0:27] Well, tonight is no different, because public office and political power is not simply a position to be won. [0:33] It is a trust to be earned, and earning that trust means standing before the people, answering their questions, and defending the choices you would make in their name. [0:42] And that's why debates matter, no matter who the moderator is. [0:46] So tonight, we were hoping to hear from both Rogers and El-Sayed, giving voters the full picture. [0:52] Invitations went out August 5th, the day after the primary, to both campaigns. [0:56] Dr. El-Sayed's camp immediately agreed. [0:59] Former Congressman Mike Rogers acknowledged the invite, but didn't say whether he'd attend until this morning, when he declined. [1:06] He did agree to debates in Grand Rapids and another station in Detroit later on. [1:12] Now, former Congressman Rogers changes his mind. [1:14] His team is watching. [1:15] We're leaving a podium open for him. [1:17] And he's welcome to join us anytime in the next hour. [1:19] That is not a prop. [1:21] That is a working microphone that is ready to hear him out. [1:24] And you can join in, too. [1:25] Just scan the QR code on your screen and text me your questions at 248-200-5042. [1:32] You can ask your question, and we'll ask it right here on Fox 2. [1:36] Now, we're continuing to take questions from our studio audience as well. [1:40] They're seated behind me, as you can tell. [1:42] And obviously, this is a very important day, an important night. [1:45] Dr. El-Sayed is here. [1:46] We want to remind you that we are taking your questions right from our studio audience as well. [1:51] All right, let's go ahead and get into it and get to our first question right now to Dr. El-Sayed. [1:56] Thank you so much for joining us here tonight on The Pulse. [1:58] Yeah, honored so much to be here. [2:00] I'm grateful to you and honored to engage in what is a debate about where we ought to go as a state. [2:07] You know, I was never supposed to run for office. [2:09] I wanted to be a doctor. [2:10] I wanted to be a doctor. [2:11] I could go 15 hours to my family's native Egypt or 15 minutes from where I grew up. [2:15] And either way, I'd travel 10 years difference in life expectancy. [2:18] I went into public health when I realized that our health care system was often too interested in billing than healing. [2:24] And it led me to a moment where I got to rebuild Detroit's health department, lead Wayne County's Department of Health, Human, and Veteran Services. [2:31] We eliminated medical debt, put Narcan in vending machines for free, put glasses on kids' faces. [2:37] I'm running for U.S. Senate simply because it just shouldn't be this hard. [2:39] It shouldn't be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries. [2:42] It shouldn't be this hard to pay a rent. [2:43] It shouldn't be this hard in the richest, most powerful country in the world to see a doctor. [2:48] And we're in a moment right now where too often the challenges we face have everything to do with the ways that politicians are bought off, [2:53] more interested in running 30-second ads from big corporations who fund them than actually having a conversation with the broader public. [3:00] I think if he were here, he would tell you that this race is somehow about him or me. [3:04] It's not. [3:05] It's about you. [3:05] It's about who respects you enough to take your questions and listen when you share what is frustrating you. [3:12] Gas, groceries, the ability to see a doctor, whether or not your kids' schools are well-funded. [3:17] Those are the things this race is about, have always been about. [3:21] And those are the problems I hope to be able to take on as your next U.S. Senator. [3:24] I was looking forward to a good debate, but I would not miss the opportunity to answer questions from fellow Michiganders. [3:30] And I'll finish here. Last week, Mike Rogers took the time to go to Dallas, Dallas, to give a speech at a convention held in the interest of Donald Trump. [3:39] But he didn't have the time to spend an hour with us here in Detroit. [3:43] And it tells you everything about who he is and what his priorities are. [3:47] Dr. Al-Sayed, I want to begin with our first topic. It has to do with experience. [3:50] You know, you talk often about what you want to do, what you've done in the past, both in the health department at Wayne County and in Detroit. [3:58] But when it comes to the kind of experience it takes to be a statesman, to be a U.S. senator, to travel through those hallowed chambers [4:05] and to understand how to get things done with people you don't agree with, [4:08] what makes you believe you have the skill set to actually embrace that talent quickly and move forward for the people of Michigan? [4:17] I appreciate the question, Roop. Let me tell you, my first experience in public service was serving the city of Detroit post-bankruptcy. [4:24] That was not an easy place to get things done. [4:27] And yet we walked in to rebuild a department that had been shut down after our state. [4:32] Republicans like Mike Rogers pushed it into bankruptcy. [4:37] And we rebuilt it around the well-being of kids. [4:39] We did things like have every school, daycare, and Head Start tested for lead in the water after the Flint water crisis. [4:43] Put glasses on kids, so much so that the program has delivered 50,000 pairs of glasses statewide [4:48] since we kicked it off in the city of Detroit. [4:51] That kind of work, that kind of leadership, means bringing people together to work together around a shared goal. [4:57] That's the kind of leadership we need more of in the U.S. Senate. [5:00] But it also means showing up and talking to constituents, understanding their frustrations, [5:05] showing up in the way that I have today, in the way that my opponent has chosen not to. [5:10] And it also means recognizing that you need diverse skill sets that we bring to the table. [5:16] If I were to be elected to the U.S. Senate, I'd be the first Democratic doctor elected to the U.S. Senate since 1969. [5:22] First ever public health official elected to the U.S. Senate. [5:24] Here in Michigan, we just had to take on a cyclosporiasis epidemic. [5:29] Now, thankfully, cyclosporiasis is not deadly, but it's really, really uncomfortable for people who are affected. [5:33] And that's because, under the leadership of Donald Trump, who Mike Rogers is running to be a rubber stamp for, [5:39] they doged so much of the infrastructure of public health that's supposed to protect us from things like this. [5:45] We need a U.S. Senate already on day one to work with others to solve problems. [5:49] That's exactly what I did in the city of Detroit. [5:51] It's what I've done in Wayne County, and it's what I aim to do in the U.S. Senate. [5:55] Dr. El-Sayed, respectfully, though, you talk a lot about the health issues that, of course, you've helped solve [6:00] and get in front of and make sure that people had what they needed. [6:03] But certainly, you understand the depth of the kind of work that these senators do. [6:07] You've talked to other people who have that job. [6:10] You have to get along with other people, and you have to get along well with those who you disagree with. [6:14] The tone of this campaign has been anything but civil. [6:17] And the responsibility of making sure it's a civil conversation rests on the shoulders of both you and also Mike Rogers. [6:25] Do you have any regrets about the tone of this campaign that could make people believe that perhaps you're not able to work with people who you disagree with? [6:33] Well, look, when it comes to principle, I'm always going to stand on principle. [6:36] But I would love to have conversations with folks with whom we disagree. [6:40] Civility is about how you engage with others. [6:43] I am here today to have a conversation about who we are and who we want to be, what we want for our state. [6:49] I showed up because civility starts with showing up and having a conversation. [6:53] That, obviously, is not the choice that my opponent made. [6:56] But I want us to think a little bit about where we go from here. [6:59] Think a little bit about why things don't get done in the halls of D.C. [7:03] Too often, it's not because people disagree. [7:05] Too often, it's because the corporations who pay for campaigns can rig a system so that regardless of who wins, they're bought and paid for by the same corporations. [7:14] DTE, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Big Tech, Big Pharma, all corporations who have donated to my opponent. [7:20] So I'm actually interested in coming together to have a conversation, to reach past the politics that tells us that the only way to run campaigns is for corporations to come and buy and sell a politician to do their bidding anyway. [7:31] I think Michiganders across the state are looking forward to that. [7:34] And I'll finish here. [7:35] I spent the last week, rather than being in Dallas, up and down the state having conversations in a town hall format where people get to ask their questions. [7:42] Not everybody there agreed with me. [7:44] Several of them said, look, I voted for Donald Trump multiple times. [7:46] Why should I vote for you? [7:47] But that's what civility starts with, the willingness to show up and answer questions. [7:52] And that's exactly what I'm hoping to do alongside my colleagues so that we can get things done in the U.S. Senate. [7:56] In the spirit of that, Dr. Al-Sayed, you can only talk about your own actions in this campaign. [8:00] But specifically, there were not proud moments in this campaign between the two of you. [8:05] There were moments that we wouldn't teach our high schoolers to act the way the two of you acted. [8:09] Talking about putting pads on and who likes football more. [8:13] Whether who started it or who didn't, this conversation got downright. [8:17] It devolved into the kind of stuff that you see on Twitter only. [8:21] But it was happening in real life. [8:23] Do you regret that? [8:24] Do you wish that the tone was a little bit different? [8:25] And do you believe that you have a responsibility to set a good example for others? [8:29] Well, with all due respect, Raj, there are football teams in most high schools. [8:32] And football is a great way to engage when somebody wants to make it about football. [8:38] I didn't make it about football. [8:39] My interest is on your gas prices. [8:41] It's on your groceries. [8:43] It's on whether or not you can see a doctor when you get sick. [8:45] That is persistently what I've been interested in talking about. [8:49] Starting all the way back in April of 2025, when we kicked off this campaign, [8:53] we went to 110 different cities, 550 public events. [8:58] And everywhere we went, we talked about the same issues. [9:01] We want money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all. [9:04] I understand that my opponent wants to make this about football. [9:06] He wants to make it about a streamer in California. [9:08] He wants to make it about anything and everything that isn't about your gas prices, [9:12] isn't about whether or not you can afford your groceries, [9:14] isn't about whether or not you can see a doctor. [9:16] So I'm really, really interested in answering those questions, [9:19] which is why I showed up today to answer those questions. [9:22] But at the end of the day, if you look at this campaign and ask, [9:25] how does it map to the circumstances of my life? [9:28] Chances are you are looking at having to pay more [9:31] because of a tariff war we shouldn't be fighting, [9:33] having to pay more because of a hot war with Iran we should not be fighting, [9:37] having to pay more because of a set of policies brought to you by Donald Trump [9:41] and his chosen sock puppet, Mike Rogers. [9:44] And at the end of the day, I just think it's really, really important for any of us [9:47] and all of us to be focused on the issues. [9:49] So my commitment is I'm always going to bring the conversation back to you and your family [9:53] and your ability to afford the basic things that you need in your life. [9:56] And I think I would love to see my opponent commit to the same thing. [10:00] Well, Dr. El-Sayed, I know you don't like to talk about the Hassan-Piker relationship. [10:06] And every time you're asked about it, you say it's not about that, [10:09] it's about these other things. [10:10] But apparently it is about this too, right? [10:12] It can be about more than one thing. [10:13] Two things can be true. [10:14] People care about everything you spoke of, but they also care about this. [10:17] In fact, our first text question, we've gotten many of them asking this. [10:21] Can you completely 100% disavow offensive comments made by Hassan-Piker? [10:27] Absolutely. [10:27] Look, I take comments on their own terms. [10:31] And when Hassan made these comments about Jewish Americans and Jewish Michiganders, [10:36] I disavowed them entirely. [10:38] But I do want to ask us a question. [10:39] What is democracy for? [10:41] Democracy is about addressing our differences peaceably. [10:46] That's what it's supposed to be for. [10:48] And too often, the way that our politics happen [10:50] is that we're told who we cannot talk to. [10:52] The reason I talk to Hassan isn't because of Hassan. [10:54] It's because of the three million people [10:56] who pay attention to what he has to say. [10:59] And I think it's important to be able to offer those folks [11:01] a pathway back into our politics. [11:03] I believe in a politics where we actually show up [11:05] and talk to each other, even if we disagree. [11:07] It's the same reason that I went on Fox News, [11:10] not a place famously who agrees with a lot of the things I believe in. [11:15] I went on Jesse Waters of all places, [11:16] had a 25-minute conversation about our differences. [11:19] But that's what democracy is supposed to be about. [11:21] So I've made a commitment, this campaign, [11:23] to go everywhere and talk to everyone. [11:25] And I resist the idea that we should play [11:28] this cancel culture gotcha game [11:29] that tells us who we can't talk to [11:31] when democracy is about trying to build a coalition [11:33] because you've went out and talked to as many people as possible. [11:36] It doesn't mean you agree with everything [11:38] that the person you're talking to says, [11:40] but it does mean that you believe in the process of democracy [11:42] that starts with talking. [11:44] Again, that's why I'm here. [11:46] Because I think it's important for us to have the conversation [11:49] and to answer the questions directly. [11:50] But, Dr. Al-Sayed, and to kind of directly ask the next question to you, [11:55] you say that it's about building coalitions. [11:57] It is, but there are some coalitions that people don't want to be a part of [12:00] if you too closely associate with those who make remarks [12:03] that could be considered dubious. [12:05] And I'll give you an example. [12:06] We know that Louis Farrakhan was a big supporter of Jesse Jackson in 1984. [12:11] Jesse Jackson, the late Jackson, said, [12:13] move out, Laura Loomer and Donald Trump, Ted Nugent and Mitt Romney, [12:17] and then Donald Trump. [12:19] And they had to not just disavow, [12:21] but move away from these divisive characters. [12:23] And you know, of course, former President Obama and Jeremiah Wright, [12:27] he had to make a very clear message. [12:29] Do you wish you could be a little more clear? [12:31] Would you be a little more clear about trying to tell people [12:34] that you don't agree and rubber stamp like you say, [12:37] Rogers does Trump? [12:38] Hassan Piker? [12:39] Well, Rube, I'll tell you this. [12:41] You raised Mike Rogers and Donald Trump. [12:43] Donald Trump is the president of the United States. [12:45] Donald Trump's policies are the reason why you're paying so much more for gas. [12:49] Donald Trump's policies are the reason why you can't afford your groceries. [12:52] Donald Trump's policies are the ones that are ignoring the war in Iran he got us into [12:56] so that he can focus more on the drapes in a ballroom that we shouldn't even be building. [13:01] But Dr. Alceu, would you disavow that? [13:02] Let me just finish the point. [13:03] To equate a streamer in California with the actual president of the United States [13:07] seems to me to be a bit of a false equivalency. [13:10] But let me just answer your question directly. [13:13] I will take every statement on its own terms. [13:15] There are many, many things that he has said that I disagree with, that I have disavowed, [13:19] whether it was his ridiculous comments about 9-11 or his more recent comments about Jewish Americans. [13:24] I just think it's important for us to stop playing this game wherein you take a whole individual [13:29] and pretend like they are the worst thing they've ever said. [13:33] I remember back in 2020 where we talked about how caustic that cancel culture was. [13:38] In fact, it was Republicans themselves, the very same people who want to make this race [13:41] about a streamer in California, who said exactly that. [13:44] But we have to believe in our democratic process. [13:46] We have to believe that we can talk about individual things that people have said on their own terms. [13:51] Now, look, I understand that you're asking me the hard questions, [13:54] but I also think it's important to realize that the individual who I'm running against [13:58] did not have the respect to come here and to show you the respect enough of taking your hard questions, [14:03] didn't have the respect enough for the people in the city of Detroit [14:05] and across Michigan who are watching right now to take their hard questions. [14:10] So here's the thing you're going to get with me. [14:11] I'll answer the hard questions. [14:13] I will take every statement on its own terms and tell you what I think [14:16] because I have the courage enough to actually show up [14:18] and have the conversation that is supposed to be the substrate of our democracy. [14:22] The other guy, he wants to do his campaigning and 30-second ads [14:24] that make this campaign about anything and everything that is not what it is for you. [14:29] Can you afford your gas? [14:30] Can you afford your groceries? [14:31] Can you see a doctor when you get sick? [14:32] Does your kid's school look like it did 30 years ago [14:35] or has it had the funding it needs to be able to thrive and give your kid a good education? [14:39] And Dr. Alessi, I don't want to mention because it's the elephant in the room [14:42] that, of course, Mike Rogers put out a release earlier today. [14:45] The elephant's not in the room. [14:46] The elephant you're speaking of. [14:48] The elephant I'm speaking of, of course, the topic of why he didn't come. [14:52] He cited the moderator, me, because this format is different. [14:56] And I will say, when you and Haley Stephen stood here, [14:59] we got in there and we're going to continue to get in there. [15:01] We're getting in there now. [15:02] To allow people to speak for three or four minutes and then go to the next topic [15:05] is not what a modern-day debate should look like. [15:08] We know that at Fox 2 and we're challenging that convention. [15:10] And so we do, of course, regret that he's not here as well. [15:13] We do have questions as another Fox 2 way of doing things to get questions from our audience. [15:18] And our first audience member, Chip, you have a question here on this Fox 2 Senate debate. [15:24] To Dr. Abdullah Al-Sayed. [15:25] Go ahead. [15:26] Good evening and thank you for showing up. [15:28] Again, my name is Chip Clark. [15:30] Up to this point, what would you assess as the biggest issue facing black men in Detroit? [15:37] And what comprehensive policies are you supporting that show us as black men [15:43] that we are a respected demographic of voters in this upcoming election? [15:49] Thank you. [15:49] Dr. Abdullah Al-Sayed. [15:50] Mr. Clark, I really appreciate that question and thank you for asking it. [15:54] I think it is the lack of opportunity because of disinvestment in predominantly black communities [15:59] for a very long time. [16:01] That disinvestment is the reason that I came back to the city of Detroit to rebuild Detroit's [16:05] health department, to put glasses on kids' faces so they could see the blackboard and [16:09] understand what was happening on the blackboard, to take on medical debt, to take on lead in [16:14] schools. [16:15] But right now, you're actually seeing it in multiple different ways. [16:18] It shows up in the way that we have not invested in affordable housing in communities. [16:24] It shows up in the way that we do economic development, which too often means subsidies [16:28] for the kind of big corporations that fund campaigns from people like Mike Rogers, rather [16:32] than investment in revolving loans to empower would-be entrepreneurs to start businesses [16:37] and be able to build those businesses out, build generational wealth in their own communities. [16:42] It shows up in the fact that our schools are deeply underfunded. [16:46] It's amazing that Detroit Public Schools was able to make an investment of $700 million, [16:49] but there's still $1.7 billion behind when it comes to keeping up with where they ought [16:55] to be. [16:56] And right now, we fund school infrastructure based on an outdated model, which is built [17:00] on property taxes. [17:01] Property tax is a function of property value. [17:03] Property value is a function of racial residential redlining from the past that we port into the [17:09] future. [17:09] And that robs young children, future young black men, from the opportunity of a great education [17:15] that they deserve. [17:16] It shows up in health care. [17:18] Medicaid too often is the required health care option for folks with low income. [17:25] And Medicaid reimburses at about half the rate. [17:28] And that's because of gutting from people like Mike Rogers and Donald Trump. [17:32] So all of it works together in this morass, which serves to take away opportunity from black [17:38] men. [17:39] We need to be investing in these communities, investing in affordable housing, investing [17:43] in public schools, investing in health care, investing in revolving loan funds in ways that [17:48] empower folks to be able to unlock the incredible potential that sits in our communities. [17:53] And so I really, really appreciate the question. [17:55] And I hope that we get to work together to build those things so that six years from now, [18:00] we look back and say we did something to take on the challenges that we face. [18:04] Chip, thank you so much for your question. [18:05] I do want to ask you about some of the Democrats, many of whom are in Detroit right now, who [18:10] have some doubts about voting for you. [18:12] As you know, there's a big push, and you can define big any which way you want, but there [18:17] is certainly a pretty visible push for Democrats for Rogers. [18:21] And as you see that movement happen, you're seeing it on the front lawns of neighborhoods [18:24] in Detroit. [18:25] And yes, there are campaign stops, but there are real conversations happening with Detroiters [18:29] that we've heard from who say they're going to go for Rogers. [18:32] How do you win back or try to win voters in the city of Detroit? [18:37] Well, we had a really contentious primary. [18:39] And at the end of a contentious primary, sometimes people leave with hurt feelings. [18:44] They might have voted for my opponent. [18:46] But I got to give it to Congresswoman Stevens. [18:48] She endorsed me immediately because she understands that whatever our difference is, our shared goals [18:53] are so much bigger than that. [18:54] If you believe in public education, if you believe in clean air and clean water, if you [19:00] believe that corporations should not have their way in D.C., if you believe that we should [19:05] offer more people better health care rather than less, if you believe that prescription [19:09] drugs should be affordable, if you believe that we should not be fighting wars, we have [19:15] no business fighting, then those are things you and I agree on. [19:19] And I hope I can earn your support. [19:21] Now look, the thing that doesn't get paid attention to, because we have a lot more confidence in [19:26] our campaign than that, is the number of Republicans who tell me they're voting for me. [19:31] They say, you know what, you really are America first. [19:34] You don't want to send my tax dollars abroad to fund the worst things. [19:37] We could keep that here at home. [19:39] They tell me, you really want me to have health care. [19:41] I really want you to have health care. [19:43] They tell me we're sick and tired of watching corporate politicians buy, bought and sold to [19:48] do the bidding of those corporations when they get to office. [19:51] So we're building a very strong and very robust community of independents and Republicans [19:56] who are voting for this campaign. [19:59] But at the end of the day, I want to speak more broadly about what this campaign is about. [20:04] Folks want to make this campaign about all different kinds of things that are a distraction. [20:07] The question ultimately is, can you afford your life? [20:10] Can you afford the things you have to buy every week, every month, every year? [20:14] And if not, ask yourself why not. [20:17] It's because folks like Mike Rogers have corrupted themselves at the edge of corporate contributions. [20:22] Five million dollars he took throughout his campaigns for Congress. [20:25] That's not even talking about his campaigns for U.S. Senate. [20:29] And then he retired to Florida, bought a McMansion in two yachts, made $14 million as an advisor [20:35] for the very same corporations he had spent his time in Congress regulating. [20:40] Now, what kind of regulation do you think he actually offered, knowing that there was going [20:43] to be a payday at the back end? [20:45] If you think that's how our politics ought to run, and if you think you're not the one [20:48] paying for it, then go ahead and vote for Mike Rogers. [20:50] But if you want politics of the people, by the people, and for the people, I've never [20:54] taken a dime from those corporations, and I never will. [20:57] And I am really serious about trying to take on the affordability crisis that you face. [21:00] I want to hit you with two questions that we think are really important that people are [21:04] curious about as well. [21:05] You talk about health care for all, Medicare for all. [21:08] You know, that notion is attractive when you talk about all those people who need it. [21:12] But what about the people who have private health insurance right now who worry about [21:16] what they're going to, how they're going to have to pay for this now in their taxes? [21:19] We say put money back in the pockets as one of your slogans. [21:22] But how do you do that when you're having to raise taxes to pay for Medicare? [21:27] Medicare for all is not about what it takes away. [21:29] It's about what it offers. [21:30] Even if you're privately insured right now, let me just talk to the middle voter here. [21:34] The median income in Michigan is $72,000 a year. [21:38] The median deductible, which is the money you have to pay to get the health insurance you [21:41] thought you already paid for every single paycheck, it comes right off the top. [21:45] That's $4,500. [21:46] So if you're doing the math, you're losing a whole paycheck to get the health care you [21:50] thought you paid for every single paycheck. [21:52] That's if you're privately insured. [21:54] I want you to imagine what would happen if you had another card next to your private insurance [21:59] card. [22:00] It was a Medicare card. [22:00] You got it the day you were born. [22:02] It does not expire until you expire, God willing, at 120 years of life, peacefully in your sleep. [22:07] It's zero copay, zero deductible, zero premium. [22:11] It doesn't have a network, so they don't tell you what doctor you can see or can't see. [22:15] And you don't have to worry about what happens if you lose your job, turn 26, get married, [22:20] get divorced. [22:21] That's the security Medicare for all could offer. [22:23] I think all of us who've ever had to use our insurance understand just how insecure it really [22:29] is. [22:29] Just how much you have to be thinking about the finances just because you got sick. [22:33] It shouldn't be the case in the richest, most powerful country in the world. [22:36] We can do this. [22:37] We can't do this, though, if the corporations keep buying and selling politicians. [22:41] Mike Rogers took a million dollars from Big Pharma. [22:43] He's taken so much money from the insurance industry, taking money from big hospitals. [22:47] And so, yes, he's bought off. [22:49] His insurance plan, I haven't actually seen it. [22:51] He wants you to pay 50 bucks every time you have to get a checkup at the doctor. [22:54] So his plan is, I guess, co-pays for all. [22:56] Mine is health care secure for everyone. [23:00] But, Dr. Elson, is this aspirational? [23:03] Because if you really think about it, and I want to ask you the question, again, you [23:06] haven't been through those hauls. [23:08] When it comes to these bills, how this all works, you need support from other senators [23:12] for that to happen, right? [23:13] So far in the Democratic Party, you don't even have people who believe in Medicare for [23:17] all. [23:17] How do you get things done and also put money back in people's pockets when the taxes are [23:23] being raised in order to pay for Medicare for all? [23:25] Well, we pay 19 cents on the dollar for every dollar spent in our whole economy on health [23:29] care right now. [23:30] We are both the largest and fastest growing health care system in the world by cost. [23:36] And we get what for it? [23:38] The insecurity, the pain, the frustration of having to fight with some unnamed bureaucrat [23:43] in some insurance corporation because they're trying to nickel and dime you for the health [23:46] care you already paid for. [23:48] That's what we get out of this. [23:49] So I take really seriously, as we've talked about already, Roop, that politics is about [23:54] persuasion. [23:55] It's not just about the conversation you have with 99 other senators. [23:58] It's the conversation we have together for the 350 million people who elected all of the [24:02] senators. [24:03] And right now, that conversation is being obfuscated by the amount of money being spent on behalf [24:07] of the corporations to tell us what we cannot have and should not fight for. [24:10] So I want to be having a conversation with the broader public about what we really want. [24:14] Yes, we really can guarantee health care in this country. [24:16] Yes, we really can do it while spending a lot less and getting a lot more if our health [24:22] care doesn't still fund tens of millions of dollars in health care CEO salaries on top [24:28] of it. [24:28] You believe you can convince other Democrats who are more moderate, centrist Democrats [24:32] and Republicans to get the job done? [24:34] I believe we can have a conversation as a society about why those voters should have a conversation [24:40] with their elected officials. [24:41] And yes, I'm really looking forward to continuing this conversation with my colleagues. [24:44] I'll tell you this, I will support any health care legislation that increases health care [24:50] coverage via public means and does not empower health care corporations. [24:55] But I also, I'm not going to make the mistake of saying that nibbling around the edges is [24:59] the best we can do. [25:00] If you think that at the end of the day, health care should be about the profits of big corporations, [25:05] I'm not your guy. [25:06] If you believe like me that health care should be about whether or not you can see a doctor [25:10] more about healing than billing, then I think I might be. [25:13] And I'll also tell you this, right now in the United States Senate, there is not a Democratic [25:18] doctor at all, never been a public health official in its history. [25:21] As you think about the challenges we face, maybe it'd be a good idea to hire somebody who [25:26] actually understands this industry leading on behalf of the broader public who has not [25:31] taken money from the corporations who benefit off the system. [25:34] But when you raise those taxes, do you end up even kind of at that point when it looks like [25:40] how much you have to pay and how much you, I mean, have you done the math and how much [25:43] can you guarantee that? [25:45] As you know, I wrote a whole book on this and folks are welcome to check it out. [25:48] But let me just talk to you a little bit about the exchange. [25:51] Right now, if you look at your W-2 paycheck, okay, you get paid every two weeks or four weeks. [25:58] First payment that goes off the top is FICA, Federal Insurance Collections Agency. [26:02] That's Uncle Sam. [26:03] And then after FICA is your health insurer, your private health insurer. [26:08] They eat before your family eats. [26:10] And we pay so much more than they do in other countries for health care that isn't there [26:15] for you when you need it. [26:16] Think about a deductible. [26:17] Think about a copay. [26:18] All the money that comes out of your pocket. [26:19] It's why we have $225 billion of medical debt. [26:22] We are being nickel and dimed by corporations who exist specifically to hold our tax care [26:26] payer dollars, excuse me, our health care dollars and pay out as little as possible. [26:30] We can do so much better than that. [26:33] And so the amount of money that you end up paying for health care under Medicare for [26:37] all is substantially lower. [26:38] And I also believe that we should be taxing billionaires their wealth. [26:42] Why? [26:43] Because I care more that we provide things like child care and health care and good [26:46] schools and good roads than allowing a billionaire make their second billion. [26:50] I don't think that's a crazy idea. [26:52] And I think it's incumbent on us to be asking as a society, how is it that we invest in the [26:56] things we actually need? [26:57] And right now, people need health care. [26:58] We got to take a break, Dr. Al-Sayed. [27:00] We're back on the other side of the break, talking about courting Jewish voters and also [27:04] talking about Israel. [27:05] You're watching our special edition of The Pulse, the U.S. Senate debate next here on Fox [27:09] 2. [27:10] Back now on the special edition of The Pulse, the United States Senate debate. [27:21] A reminder, we're taking your questions via text. [27:23] We're already above a thousand questions that have come in. [27:26] Our team is sifting through them right now. [27:28] Just scan the QR code on your screen or text us at 248-200-5042 to ask your question. [27:34] We're going to continue our conversation with Dr. Abdul Al-Sayed. [27:37] We have a podium here. [27:38] We told Mike Rogers and his team they were welcome to come here up until when the debate [27:43] started. [27:44] Frankly, they're welcome now as well. [27:46] But obviously, he has declined that invitation. [27:48] I want to continue our conversation with the doctor, talking specifically now about Israel. [27:53] You know, this has been obviously a topic that's very important to the whole country, [27:56] to the whole world. [27:57] And as U.S. senators, certainly you'd have a big voice in those hallowed chambers to talk about [28:02] it. [28:02] What are your thoughts on a two-state solution for Israel? [28:06] I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and [28:10] Jewish Israelis alike. [28:12] For a very long time, we've been told that our country was for a two-state solution, even [28:16] as our taxpayer dollars, to the tune of billions of dollars a year, were being sent unconditionally [28:21] to aid, arm, and abet a government trying to foreclose on the possibility of the second [28:27] state. [28:28] And we've seen this unstable equilibrium, the violence that it's created. [28:31] We saw the attack on October 7th. [28:34] We saw the genocide that followed thereafter. [28:37] I believe deeply that every child in the Holy Land, Palestinian or Jewish, deserves to [28:42] grow up without worrying about whether or not their life is going to be upended by war or [28:48] apartheid or genocide or terrorism. [28:51] So I think as a country, we need to be serious about our responsibilities. [28:56] And let's step back for a second. [28:57] Those billions of dollars that they send abroad to drop bombs on other people's kids, those [29:02] billions of dollars ought to be spent to make Detroit public schools whole, to build [29:06] our roads and bridges, to provide us health care. [29:09] The same people who talk about America first are perfectly fine sending our taxpayer dollars [29:14] to foreign governments. [29:15] And it's not just Israel that I believe we should not be funding unconditionally. [29:19] It's Egypt, where my family immigrated from. [29:22] It's Pakistan. [29:23] It's Saudi Arabia. [29:23] Arabia, they should not be getting unconditional military aid. [29:27] And I just think I pay my taxes. [29:29] You pay your taxes to provide health care, to make sure our schools are good, to invest [29:34] in roads and bridges. [29:35] We don't do it so a foreign government gets a bomb or a tank. [29:37] I don't think that's a particularly crazy idea, particularly when you think about what's [29:40] been done with our money. [29:42] And that's not about being opposed to anybody. [29:44] When it comes to the well-being, the safety of the Jewish community here in Michigan, I believe [29:48] in that safety the same way I believe in the safety of my own daughters. [29:51] But it's about believing in everybody's safety. [29:53] And the recognition that putting more money into militaries out in the world increases [29:58] the probability that people lose their safety rather than having that safety protected, [30:01] whether it's a child in Detroit going to an underfunded public school or it's a child [30:05] in Gaza worried about bombs. [30:08] Let's talk about Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. [30:12] Your thoughts on that? [30:13] It's an important topic and one that a lot of people ask about. [30:16] Of course, we know that the Arab League, they have a formal diplomatic non-recognition of [30:20] Israel as its own Jewish state. [30:24] Do you believe that America should continue its recognition of Israel as a Jewish state? [30:30] You know, I'd love to hear what Mike has to say about this. [30:33] I'd love to ask why he went to four AIPAC fundraisers in a single day after asking AIPAC not to support [30:39] his campaign. [30:40] I'd love to understand what his perspective is. [30:43] But let me share mine. [30:45] I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and [30:48] Jewish Israelis alike. [30:50] I think it's really important for us to ask right now whether or not we think our responsibility [30:55] is to impose a plan on other people or to enable a free Palestinian people and a free [31:00] Jewish Israeli people to come together to decide how they are going to engage on this [31:05] question. [31:06] People ask this question about the right of the state that actually exists to exist. [31:10] But I never get asked about the right of the state that does not exist to exist. [31:14] I don't get asked about whether or not the state that exists has a right to use our tax [31:18] dollars to do heinous things. [31:21] I don't get asked about whether or not the kids in Detroit have a right to their tax dollars. [31:24] So I just think the premise of the question is built around trying to ask people to agree [31:29] to the current status quo that we have seen become a deeply unstable, deeply violent equilibrium. [31:35] And I'm a lot more interested in thinking about the future state where you have equal rights [31:39] to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinian and Jewish Israeli people alike. [31:43] And I just want to say this. [31:44] It's really important to me that we understand that this is more about process than it is [31:48] about outcome. [31:49] If free Palestinian people and free Jewish Israeli people come together and decide that they [31:53] want two states for two people, I'm for it. [31:55] If they decide they want one state for two people, I'm for that. [31:58] If they decide that they want 23 states, as has been talked about, or land for all, [32:01] I'm for that. [32:02] But I'm not for, as a senator from Michigan, sending my tax dollars abroad to drop bombs [32:08] on other people when they could be used here to do the right things here. [32:11] And I'm not for telling other people how to solve their problems. [32:14] And I'm not for making those problems a lot worse, as our unconditional foreign military [32:18] aid has done right now. [32:19] I want to get to one of our text questions right now. [32:21] This is actually from a libertarian U.S. Senate candidate who texted us. [32:25] And she's asking, what are your plans to tackle prison overcrowding and homelessness? [32:30] Two issues that plague our community right here at home. [32:33] Well, I appreciate the libertarian candidate has now participated more than the Republican [32:36] candidate has in this debate. [32:38] Now, look, I think it's really important for us to be thoughtful about how we solve these [32:43] big society-wide problems. [32:45] And on the one hand, I think it's important to recognize that when it comes to housing, [32:51] housing is a housing problem. [32:52] We have to build more housing. [32:53] I actually think that the housing bill that just recently passed into law is a really great [32:57] first step. [32:58] I think there's a lot more we need to do around protecting the rights of renters through a [33:01] renter bill of rights. [33:02] And I think there's more we need to do about making sure that big tech that has enabled [33:06] people with excess money to buy housing in our communities have to pay their fair share [33:10] to building the housing we need. [33:11] We do that. [33:12] And we actually have the opportunity to start solving our housing crisis. [33:16] When it comes to prison overcrowding, I think it's really important for us to realize [33:19] that the answer that we've had right now around private prisons has been extremely dangerous [33:24] for everybody. [33:24] I don't believe that you should be able to make money in this country as a contractor [33:28] selling prison outcomes. [33:30] I believe that we need to use that resource and it has to be fully public. [33:34] And when we use that resource, we have to recognize that it has to be a public resource. [33:38] I believe that it's really important to answer public safety problems with the things that [33:42] we need. [33:43] That sometimes is going to be a person with a gun. [33:46] And if that is, it's going to be somebody ideally from the local community because we've [33:50] invested in the kind of recruitment, retention, and retirement we need. [33:54] But we also need to be investing in things like community violence intervention, things [33:57] like behavioral health response when somebody is having a mental health crisis, things that [34:02] the Trump administration has defunded. [34:05] And so I am for public safety. [34:06] Everybody deserves to get home safely at night. [34:09] But the challenge right now is that the Trump administration is leaving us less safe by taking [34:13] away the kinds of things that actually can help to keep folks safe in the first place. [34:17] Before we get to our audience question, I want to ask you a question about President [34:19] Trump. [34:20] When it comes to working with him, how do you plan on working with somebody who is of [34:25] a personality, a political party that you just don't line with? [34:30] Would you be able to sit in the room with President Trump and have an honest conversation [34:33] without trading barbs and try to work towards a common goal? [34:38] Look, I'll work with anybody to get a job done. [34:40] I don't have to like them. [34:41] I don't have to agree with them on most things. [34:43] But if there's a place where we can agree and we can get things done, I will be right there [34:47] to try and get things done. [34:48] My job is to get things done for folks in the state. [34:51] But here's what I'm not going to do. [34:52] I'm not going to sell short my own values. [34:54] I'm not going to be a sock puppet for Donald Trump. [34:57] That's exactly what Mike Rogers would do. [34:59] I'd love to hear why he's underwriting this tariff war that's forcing us to pay $5,619 a [35:08] year in this state. [35:09] I'd love to hear what his commentary is about this war in Iran that we can't get out of, [35:13] that we're paying for both through our taxes and at the pump. [35:17] But he's not here because he doesn't want to answer those questions, because he doesn't [35:20] even want to be asked them, because he understands that he's between a rock and a hard place. [35:24] We all know that Donald Trump's tariff war is a vanity war. [35:27] We all know that this Iran war was a ridiculous idea we never should have fought. [35:30] And he doesn't want to have to answer for that. [35:32] So he's letting his 30-second ads paid for by the corporations who've owned him forever [35:36] do the talking. [35:37] Do you think that it was a good idea for Governor Whitmer, not once, not twice, but three times, [35:41] to go to the White House, work with someone she's politically and diametrically opposed [35:45] to, to get the work done? [35:47] Well, look, you know, she had her reasons for going. [35:49] And I understand in public service that you don't really second-guess the choices that [35:54] somebody makes. [35:55] She had clear goals. [35:56] And when it came to her goals, she was able to achieve them. [35:58] Like I said, he is the president of the United States. [36:00] And if there's an opportunity to serve our state, I will talk to him and engage with him. [36:05] And so, you know, it's not my place to judge Governor Whitmer and the choices she's made [36:10] because I know that she was serving in good faith to try and secure key resources for Michiganders. [36:16] But it is my job to remind folks that we have clear policy goals. [36:21] If he wants to work with me on my policy goals, I'm all ears. [36:25] If he thinks he's going to try to bend me to his policy goals, that's a different story. [36:29] That's what Mike Rogers will be interested in doing. [36:31] Well, Kayla has a question here on The Pulse, a member of our studio audience. [36:36] Kayla, thanks for being here today. [36:38] Go ahead. [36:38] Thank you for showing up. [36:39] I did want to ask, since you were mentioning gas prices, do you have any plan to alleviate [36:44] gas prices? [36:45] The simplest and most obvious is we should stop fighting a war in Iran. [36:50] We should not be fighting in the first place. [36:53] A big reason that our gas prices are so expensive is because this war has had one really big outcome. [36:58] It's taught the Iranian regime that they have a chokehold on this place in the world [37:02] that we hadn't heard of seven months ago, most of us, the Strait of Hormuz. [37:06] Every single general, every single one could have told you that if we got into war with [37:11] Iran, that was going to be the weak point and we don't have a plan to get out of it. [37:15] But even beyond that, you know, you think about what is driving the price of gas. [37:21] Too often you have a few corporations that dominate every single part of our economy and [37:26] they're able to, in effect, have an oligopoly against us. [37:30] And when they have an oligopoly, they can collude around what those prices look like and we [37:33] always end up paying more. [37:35] What's also interesting is we end up working in different industries. [37:38] And so when you have consolidation at the very top of any industry, if you work in that [37:42] industry, they can collude to suppress your wage. [37:44] It's why we can't seem to keep up with any of the skyrocketing prices. [37:49] Our prices go up and our paychecks stay stagnant and we end up having to pay more for less. [37:54] Dr. Alcena, I want to follow up with the gas prices here for a moment because the reason we have [37:58] those high gas prices, because, as you say, the Strait of Hormuz and the continuing conflict [38:03] and the war in Iran, do you believe that Iran should have been left alone? [38:07] And do you believe that they actually do pose a nuclear threat to the world as they continue [38:12] to develop and enrich uranium on their land? [38:15] Look, it's a pretty crazy thing because if you rewind back to the end of the Obama administration, [38:22] we had had a peace deal that secured Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon without any war. [38:28] It was negotiated diplomatically. [38:32] Now, Donald Trump gets into office the first time, he scraps that deal. [38:35] Then he gets into office the second time and takes us to war with Iran. [38:38] We are worse off than we were before the unwinding of the JCPOA, which is what the name of that deal [38:45] was. [38:46] We are all at higher risk because of it, and we are paying more both for a war we should [38:50] not be fighting. [38:52] We had service members who gave the highest measure that you can give their lives because [38:56] of the war we should not have been fighting, because of Donald Trump's folly of getting [39:00] us out of that deal in the first place, because he was angry at President Obama because he'll [39:06] not match up to him. [39:08] I mean, this is a crazy way to make policy. [39:10] I just want to finish here. [39:11] So much of Donald Trump's policy is about his own personal grudges with individuals, [39:15] right? [39:16] His grudge with Barack Obama, which is why he shredded the JCPOA. [39:19] His grudge with Mark Carney, who is the prime minister of Canada, which is why we're in this [39:23] trade war. [39:24] His grudge with the leaders of Venezuela or Iran, which is why he has illegally used our [39:30] military to make war in both of those places. [39:33] This is crazy. [39:34] And you and I pay for it. [39:35] We pay for it in our tax dollars. [39:36] We pay for it at the pump. [39:37] We pay for it at the grocery store. [39:38] We pay for it every single day. [39:40] But do you believe that Iran poses a threat to the world currently with their nuclear [39:43] program? [39:44] I believe that Donald Trump's choices around this war have made us less safe when it comes [39:49] to the risk of nuclear proliferation. [39:52] And that is a problem, because we were at a steady state, and he made us less safe. [39:56] We should never have gone to that war. [39:58] It was illegal. [39:59] It was immoral. [40:00] And it was wrong. [40:01] We're there now. [40:02] Do you finish the job and make sure that Iran doesn't get nukes? [40:06] I think the best single thing we can do is try to play back for where we were at the [40:10] JCPOA. [40:11] They were open to an agreement. [40:13] They had made an agreement. [40:15] They were abiding by their agreement. [40:17] And he tore it up because he was mad. [40:19] Look, you talk a lot about the PACs and the super PACs with your opponent. [40:23] I want to ask you about funding when it comes to your own campaign. [40:26] There have been questions that have been asked of us to make sure that we ask you. [40:30] And I think it is important. [40:32] There have been some folks who actually have gotten money from PACs fighting for Michigan. [40:37] We understand there's a gentleman who has contributed to that PAC, I think, to your campaign, $250,000. [40:43] And one of the things that that gentleman does is make sure that he collects medical debt. [40:48] And you've gone on the record to say that it's a shame that people have to go and pay off their medical debt. [40:54] I'm just going to stop you there. [40:55] That's actually not true. [40:56] That's not true? [40:56] That's a guy with the same name. [40:58] Same. [40:58] A guy with the same name. [41:00] It was corrected. [41:01] You should go check the record. [41:02] Well, I'll check the record. [41:03] But what about all of these? [41:04] And I'll just say this. [41:05] Look, what about the PACs, though? [41:06] Are there any PACs where you're taking money currently? [41:09] That is a super PAC. [41:11] I do not engage with them at all. [41:13] And I have told everyone I am not interested in receiving a dime from a corporation to fund [41:18] any campaign. [41:19] I want to talk about this, though, right? [41:20] Because the guy who is supposed to be here, who is running as a Republican, Mike Rogers, [41:25] he is a wash in corporate money. [41:27] Oh, wash. [41:28] He took $5 million from corporations, a million alone from prescription drug companies. [41:31] You want to talk about corporate corruption of our politics? [41:35] When he had the opportunity to actually step up and take on the corporate corruption, he [41:39] voted against it every single time. [41:43] When you talk about where we go from here, I have never, ever solicited a dime from a [41:47] corporation to run a campaign. [41:49] My guy, $5 million. [41:50] And we don't even know about the full amount of money he's taken into the super PACs from [41:55] shady corporate PACs that he has benefited from in this race alone. [42:00] And there's a reason he's not here. [42:01] Because he thinks he can buy your vote in 30-second ads brought to you by the corporations [42:06] who he's going to turn around and do the bidding for in ways that are going to rig the [42:11] system against you. [42:12] You will pay for it. [42:14] DTE, $64,000 they've given him. [42:16] $64,000. [42:18] So ask yourself why you don't have public pressure from DTE. [42:21] Well, it's because DTE gives to 93% of the state legislature. [42:23] They gave to him when he was in the state legislature. [42:25] And they give to a number of federal representatives, too, including him. [42:30] $64,000. [42:31] So next time you lose your power, just remember, that's a $64,000 question. [42:36] Rogers has said that it's time for you to return money that you may have gotten from organizations [42:40] like CARE, citing what he calls a dubious cloud over that. [42:45] Is that something that you're thinking about doing, would be willing to do? [42:48] And what do you have to say about that? [42:50] You know, that civil rights organization exists because people like Mike Rogers want to make [42:53] this race about the color of my skin or how I pray. [42:56] So I'm focused on you and your gas prices and the price of your groceries. [43:02] He's focused on trying to turn this into some kind of culture war. [43:04] Notice they never are satisfied when they fight the culture war. [43:08] It's always about trying to tear us apart. [43:10] You know, Rup, folks are making aspersions about you. [43:13] Now, I don't know exactly what they meant by this. [43:16] But just remember, when they try to tell us that America is too small, that some people [43:20] should not belong here, it's not an attack on either of us. [43:23] It's an attack on America itself. [43:25] I believe in an America that is big enough for all of us. [43:28] Mike Rogers, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, they believe that some people are more American [43:31] than others. [43:32] They think that if you pray a different way, your family comes from a different place, [43:36] that somehow there's an asterisk on your American identity. [43:40] I believe that America, he pluribus unum, out of many one government of the people, by [43:43] the people, and for the people, is the greatest asset to the greatest country in the world. [43:48] And when they try to attack us simply because we might look different or pray different, [43:53] they are attacking the idea of America itself. [43:56] And so I wish that Mike was here. [43:57] I wish he was willing to answer questions about why it is he thinks that some people [44:02] aren't quite ready to be in offices like the one I'm running for. [44:06] Why some people should not be moderating debates. [44:10] Well, we should point out also that when you mentioned Donald Trump and the president and [44:14] J.D. Vance, J.D. Vance is the father of the children to an Indian-American daughter who [44:22] came to this country. [44:22] Usha Vance, the second lady, is an Indian woman who came to this country. [44:25] So I think there is diversity amongst that party. [44:28] I think the bottom line is you're saying there have been aspersions that have been made and [44:31] that that's something that you obviously take issue with as you should. [44:35] Kayla has a question, Dr. Al-Sayed. [44:37] What will you do to ensure teachers earn enough to survive? [44:41] Because certainly right now, that is very much a crisis within that profession. [44:45] Kayla, thank you so much for asking this question. [44:47] I believe in public schools. [44:49] I was a beneficiary of incredible public schools and we are underfunding our public schools. [44:53] We are asking teachers not just to be teachers. [44:56] We're asking them to be nurses and janitors and social workers and mental health professionals. [45:01] We're asking them to do so much because we have not funded what they need and what they [45:05] deserve. [45:06] I believe in a minimum wage for teachers. [45:09] I believe in teacher tenure. [45:10] I believe in investing in the paraprofessionals that allow teachers to be teachers and making [45:14] sure that our kids have everything that they need to be able to be the learners that they [45:19] need to be in our schools. [45:20] I believe in funding the places that they work so that they don't look like they did [45:24] 30 years ago. [45:25] I believe in what it means to empower our teachers to be the professionals. [45:30] And so we need more funding. [45:32] Unlike Donald Trump and Mike Rogers who want to defund the Department of Education, I want [45:36] to make sure that we're funding it. [45:38] And I want to make sure that we're tying funding for the Department of Education to the Department [45:41] of Defense. [45:41] So if you want to give more money to war, you're going to give more money to schools too. [45:46] All right, Dr. Al-Sayed. [45:46] We have a question from one of our members of the studio audience, Charmaine. [45:50] Thanks for being here today. [45:51] Thank you for having me. [45:52] Hello, Dr. Al-Sayed. [45:54] I'm a registered nurse. [45:55] So my question is going to be about Senate Bill 1709, which would establish direct care [46:02] to registered nurse patient staffing ratio requirements in hospitals. [46:06] So I want to ask you, how will you work across the aisle to break through the Republican hold [46:12] out senators who are opposing this bill? [46:15] Bless you and thank you. [46:17] I have walked more picket lines with nurses who are standing up to the power of the big [46:23] hospitals that are suppressing their wages in the last year than ever before. [46:28] And part of that is because of the power of those corporations to buy each other up because [46:34] of the kind of public policies that Mike Rogers supports and the money that they paid him [46:38] to look the other way. [46:40] So I'm looking forward to working alongside anyone and everyone who's willing to establish [46:45] safe staffing ratios. [46:47] And what I'll tell you is this. [46:49] No matter where you live, no matter what state you're in, you rely on nurses because you rely [46:54] on health care. [46:55] And if those nurses are in a situation where they are staffed unsafely, meaning you go from [47:00] a ratio of, say, one nurse to every four patients to now one nurse for every eight patients, what [47:05] happens when two of those patients crash? [47:08] It becomes unsafe for everybody involved. [47:10] And so I think this is just simply about making sure that patients are safe in their hospitals, [47:15] that the work of nurses who do the health care for all of us is dignified, and that we [47:20] stand up to the power of the corporations who are telling us that this is just fine, thank [47:24] you, only to find on the back end that it's made all of us less safe. [47:28] Thank you, Charmaine, for your question. [47:29] We have another text question as well, and it is from another one of our Fox 2 viewers. [47:35] It's just coming in. [47:36] There it goes. [47:37] How will you protect Michigan communities from data centers? [47:39] Data centers, obviously a huge topic that has hands from the federal government all the [47:44] way down to the local government. [47:45] What would you do? [47:46] You know, I'll tell you what. [47:47] The first thing I would do is not benefit personally from owning stock in data center corporations. [47:53] Mike Rogers, up to $2.6 million personally invested in corporations that would benefit [47:59] from data centers. [48:02] So maybe you start with just not making money off of them in the first place. [48:05] But second, I've been very clear that we need a terms of engagement. [48:09] It is absolutely necessary at the federal level that we pass public policy that does [48:12] the following things. [48:13] Number one, if it's going to make jobs, they better be good union jobs. [48:17] Number two, you cannot raise our utility rates. [48:19] Number three, you have to take some of the revenue that's created and improve our reliability, [48:24] because here in Michigan, we lose power every time the wind basically blows. [48:27] Number four, you cannot touch our water at all. [48:31] And number five, you have to have a good faith, well-negotiated community benefits agreement. [48:36] None of these shady backroom situations where you put local officials under non-disclosure [48:42] agreements where they can't talk about it. [48:43] It has to be public. [48:44] And finally, all of this needs to be fully enforceable via fees, fines, and the ability [48:48] to shut you down. [48:49] I believe that that needs to be federal policy. [48:52] And until we get that policy, I believe that we need local and state moratoriums to protect [48:57] people. [48:57] This cannot continue to be a race to the bottom, while the richest people in society make robots [49:01] that could ultimately end humanity, as they're now talking about, while the rest of us have [49:06] to deal with these hulking data centers in our backyard, raising our utility rates and [49:10] destroying our water. [49:11] We can do better. [49:12] It means regulation. [49:13] And we've needed that regulation yesterday, so the best we can do is have it tomorrow. [49:16] Finally, we need people who aren't bought off by the corporations who are benefiting from [49:22] this. [49:22] And again, it really just goes back to that point. [49:24] Money out of politics means we should not have corporations buying and selling politicians [49:28] in ways that get them to look the other way, which is exactly what Mike Rogers would do. [49:32] I wish he was here to talk about it. [49:33] I really wish he was. [49:34] Mike Rogers did say that he does believe in a moratorium. [49:38] Yeah, yeah. [49:38] Mike Rogers said he believes in a moratorium for one year at the state level. [49:41] He's running to be a U.S. senator. [49:42] And he fully understands that there is no possibility for him to actually enact that. [49:47] So it's a dodge of a question. [49:48] And he said that after he was asked at one of a few press conferences he did by a journalist, [49:54] had no answer. [49:55] And then the next day, they realized that they had to say something. [49:58] So he said, I think I want a one-year moratorium. [50:01] My question to you is like, why haven't you divested yourself from the corporations who [50:04] benefit from the data centers they're building right now? [50:05] How much of an uphill battle is this when you have, obviously, the battle with AI, the United [50:11] States versus China right now, and the president, the Trump administration, and others, even [50:15] in those chambers that you want to fill, senators who say, you know what, we got to develop [50:20] this technology. [50:21] Let's find a way to move forward and not put a cap on it. [50:24] I'm just going to ask us, what's the point of winning this war if it's going to destroy [50:27] humanity in the first place? [50:28] Like, what's the point of winning the race if it's going to take us all out in the process? [50:32] I mean, I just want to step back for a second. [50:33] And for folks who don't know, one of these big hyperscaler AI companies found out that [50:39] its AIs had basically built a gang to hack a website to get the answers to a little stupid [50:45] problem that they had given it. [50:47] And they didn't even intend for this set of AIs to even get access to the internet. [50:52] They're starting to be able to act alone in ways that really ought to wake us up. [50:57] Now, look, I don't want China to beat us. [50:59] And I think the way that we answer that is to put pressure on the folks who provide compute [51:03] power. [51:04] But Donald Trump, you know what Donald Trump did? [51:06] Donald Trump basically said, no holds barred. [51:07] You can give them all of the best computer chips and let it rip. [51:10] How does that benefit us? [51:12] The best way for us to engage is to say, look, you've got to restrict how much of that compute [51:17] power is out there to everyone involved. [51:19] And we have the ability to do that through our public policy, but nobody wants to do it. [51:22] And nobody wants to do it is because Donald Trump has basically led us to this point where [51:27] a lot of the rest of our economy has been slacking, but a lot of the top stocks are these AI stocks. [51:33] And he wants a good stock market going in to the midterms. [51:36] So he's saying, let the whole thing rip, even if it means that you have robots now that are [51:40] hopping out of human control, where the people who are designing the robots themselves are [51:45] quitting the companies and saying, yeah, I'm not doing this anymore because it could destroy [51:48] humanity. [51:49] But again, Donald Trump always puts his own interests, again, over the interests of the rest [51:53] of us. [51:53] And Mike Rogers, he's going to put whatever Donald Trump wants over you. [51:57] And that's the danger. [51:58] Abdul, you talk about danger. [51:59] Obviously, your opponent uses that word a lot when talking about you. [52:02] You talk about the aspersions from a racial and ethnic background. [52:06] But a lot of times they're talking about policy, the danger of engaging with someone who may [52:11] be socialist. [52:12] And I asked you here on this stage just a few months ago in July, whether you're a socialist, [52:17] you said, I'm a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. [52:21] But what about the DSA? [52:23] They haven't endorsed you, but do you have deep alignments with value when it comes to [52:29] what the DSA believes? [52:29] You know, Rup, at the end of the day, I know I'm here to answer questions, but I'm just [52:34] going to tell you, I'm not a part of the organization. [52:36] I don't know why you want to ask me those questions. [52:37] I'm not asking if you're a part of the support that they give you, right? [52:39] Let me speak to capitalism for a minute. [52:42] Capitalism is the process by which we allow supply and demand to allocate capital. [52:46] We make decisions on what a market will reward. [52:51] The biggest risk to capitalism, as argued by the guy who coined the term capitalism, [52:56] was not government regulation. [52:57] It was always going to be monopoly and oligopoly. [53:00] And when those monopoly and oligopoly companies pay for your campaign, those corporations now [53:04] have power to deny supply and demand, deny the market in the first place. [53:08] That's where we are right now. [53:09] We don't live in capitalism. [53:11] We live in corporatism. [53:12] And I think it's important to let us back into capitalism to enable folks to build companies [53:17] where they don't have to worry about the big gorilla of the oligopoly or corporation coming [53:22] in and either buying them up too early or stomping them out because they just can't compete. [53:28] That's where we are right now. [53:29] You don't have to be a socialist to believe that people deserve health care. [53:32] You don't have to be a socialist to believe that we need good roads. [53:34] You don't have to be a socialist to believe that maybe the interest of having good schools [53:38] is more important than a billionaire making a second billion dollars. [53:41] Those are just simple ideas that I think we'd be better off. [53:45] And I'll just finish with one last quote from the guy who coined the term capitalism, Adam Smith. [53:50] He said, there's no market without morals. [53:52] And right now we've lost our morals. [53:53] When people like Mike Rogers lose the shame of making $14 million advising the very same [53:59] corporations that yesterday they were regulating, we've lost those morals. [54:03] When people like Donald Trump make $2.2 billion off the presidency, [54:06] we've lost those morals. [54:08] We need morals back in our government. [54:10] And you don't have to be a socialist or a member of DSA to be able to believe that. [54:13] I just want to finish on this dangerous point. [54:15] Look, if you're somebody who thinks the current system is working for you, [54:18] then I'm not your guy. [54:20] If you're somebody who looks at your grocery prices and says, yep, that's fair, [54:22] or looks at your gas prices and be like, yeah, that's perfectly okay, I'm not your guy. [54:26] But you know what I'm dangerous for? [54:28] If I'm dangerous for anything, I'm dangerous to the current system that allows big corporations [54:32] to keep picking your pocket because they buy off your politicians. [54:34] And I think we need a senator who's willing to step up to those corporations right about now, [54:40] or at least show up and answer your questions. [54:42] What's the first thing you do when you get into office should you become a senator here in the U.S. [54:47] Senate? [54:47] And what would that be in about 20 seconds? [54:50] Work to get money out of politics, to end Citizens United. [54:53] Corporations are not people. [54:54] Their money is not speech. [54:55] They should not be able to buy politicians. [54:57] We need to end that. [54:58] And then it's working to pass the PRO Act to make sure that we can organize unions, [55:02] every sector of American life, and finally, getting Medicare for All done so we free people from the risk. [55:06] Thank you for your time here tonight. [55:08] We thank you for joining us here. [55:09] We want to thank you for joining us on this special edition of The Pulse. [55:11] Stay tuned here on Fox Local. [55:13] We're taking you inside the spin room where Dr. Al-Sayed will answer questions from the media, [55:17] scan the QR code, or go to fox2detroit.com slash live. [55:20] I'm Roo Paraj. [55:21] As always, it was good to be with you. [55:23] Thank you.