A smitten Whoopi Goldberg fawned over newly elected Michigan Senator Abdul El-Sayed as he took a victory lap on The View following his midterms win.
El-Sayed, 42, became the first Muslim to be elected to the US Senate on Tuesday, soundly defeating Republican Mike Rogers as Democrats swept races across the nation.
In one of his first media interviews since winning the race, El-Sayed joined The View to bask in the praise from the show’s liberal hosts.
Goldberg appeared particularly enamored with El-Sayed, as she introduced him to the audience as the candidate of ‘hope’ – just like Obama was.
Clasping her hands together to introduce ‘the first Muslim, ever, elected to the US Senate’, Goldberg could hardly contain her excitement as he sat down on the panel.
‘So, Senator, Senator, Senator,’ she said with a shit-eating grin. ‘This was one of, this election… history was made on so many levels.
‘But I think you’re going to go down as one of the biggest parts of that history, as the first Muslim ever to be in the US Senate.’
Goldberg praised El-Sayed for weathering a brutal campaign cycle, where she said a ‘lot had been made’ of the Democrat’s background and race.
The host told El-Sayed that despite facing a tough election battle, he ‘stood strong’ to continue his campaign.
‘And the people came out anyway,’ she said.
Goldberg then leaned back in her seat and invited El-Sayed to gloat about overcoming the odds, asking him: ‘So… How you doing?’
El-Sayed reflected on attacks he faced during the election about his religion, background, and race, saying that he believed his critics ‘weren’t attacking me; they were attacking the idea of an America big enough for me.’
‘I didn’t take a bet on my abilities or anything. I took a bet on the goodness of the people of Michigan,’ he said.
Host Sunny Holstin also read out a list of inflammatory names El-Sayed had been called by Republicans during the campaign, including ‘jihadist leprechaun’ by Ted Cruz and ‘evil’ by JD Vance.
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‘I want a hat!’ El-Sayed joked in response.
He added: ‘If they had something to say about the price of gas or the price of groceries or the fact that people can’t see a doctor, they would’ve said it.
‘But they didn’t have anything to say.
‘I kind of knew they were gonna reach for the red meat… But here’s the problem with the red meat: It becomes an addiction.
‘Once you go there and you put that out there, then you’re forced to defend it. So what do they do? They double down. They triple down again.’
Asked about President Trump’s quip that El-Sayed would have to go through a metal detector to enter the US Senate, the Democrat re-iterated a challenge he first made on the campaign trail – for Trump to take a lie detector test at the same time.
‘I’ll do a metal detector test all day because I have nothing to hide,’ he said. ‘Donald, if you’re watching, a lie detector is still on the table.’
El-Sayed’s victory came on a night where Democrats took offices from Republican incumbents across the nation.
In Texas, Democratic newcomer James Talarico defeated Trump-backed Republican Ken Paxton, while South Carolina elected a Democrat senator for the first time since 1998.
Most remarkably of all, Kansas sent a Democrat to the US Senate, which it had not done since 1932 during the Great Depression.
There were further stunning Democrat Senate victories in Iowa and Ohio, states Trump won by more than 10 points in the presidential election in 2024.
For El-Sayed, his victory followed a dramatic final stretch in which former Democratic primary rival Haley Stevens stunned the party by endorsing Rogers on the eve of the election.
Stevens doubled down with a barrage of attacks on El-Sayed, igniting a furious Democratic feud. But her defection also galvanized his supporters, with party heavyweights and major donors rallying behind the nominee.
Ultimately, El-Sayed defeated Rogers by seven percentage points, 52.5 percent to 45.5 percent.
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Original Article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16269207/Whoopi-Goldberg-El-Sayed-View-flirt-senator-win-muslim.html