Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan isn’t afraid to feed the trolls.

On Tuesday, a clip of El-Sayed went viral on X thanks to what’s being described as his “brilliant” answer to a question about former President Barack Obama that was clearly meant to provoke him.

Last week, the Democrat took part in a televised general debate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his opponent, former GOP congressman Mike Rogers. Afterward, both candidates spoke to the press individually, and right as El-Sayed was wrapping up and walking off the stage, a reporter yelled out: “You previously criticized President Obama. Why are you campaigning with him?”

Although El-Sayed’s body language indicated that he found the question obnoxious, he didn’t sling insults, deflect or point fingers — like most Americans have sadly become accustomed to in U.S. politics.

Instead, he can be heard telling his team, “I’ll take the question.”

He then walked back to the mic and pointed directly to the reporter who asked him the question.

“Do you love your dad?” El-Sayed asked the reporter, who presumably nodded in response. “Yeah? You agree with everything your dad has ever done? Do you?”

“Not entirely,” the reporter admitted.

“Yeah, so, it’s a normal thing to love somebody, to really appreciate all that they’ve done, and to say, ‘Hey, here are some things I would have done differently,’” El-Sayed said. “But they still did some important things to create opportunity for you.”

“There’s no world in which I get to run for office without somebody like President Obama,” he added.

El-Sayed went on to emphasize the importance of seeing Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and thinking at the time that he had “never seen politics look like that before.”

“It was the first time I ever saw myself in a politician,” El-Sayed said, pointing out that his dad, like Obama’s, had also emigrated from Africa, and that he was also raised in a blended family.

“He got a funny name, I got a funny name,” El-Sayed joked. “He’s tall and skinny; that’s where it ends, I’m 5’8”.”

El-Sayed went on to say that he “deeply” appreciates what Obama “made possible for somebody like me.”

“And at the same time, I had criticisms. There were things I looked at and thought, ‘Ah, I wish we could do that differently!’ And you know what I’m trying to do now? I’m trying to pick up the baton and run.”

El-Sayed made clear that his motivation behind running has nothing to do with any “animosity” toward Obama. In fact, he expressed the exact opposite.

“It’s actually out of deep love for him,” El-Sayed said of Obama. “Just like I have a deep love for my dad and all that he’s done to make my life possible — even if I don’t agree with everything he ever did.”

A TikTok of El-Sayed’s remarks made its way to X on Tuesday, and plenty of users were quick to praise the former doctor’s response.

bro is gooooood at this

Holy fuck I just got goose bumps. He literally has laid the path to communicate criticism of President Obama and tie it back into support. He’s fucking good!

It’s a breath of fresh air to hear an articulate, calm, intelligent candidate that isn’t throwing people under the bus for points.

Holy shit. Look, I know politicians in our current "2-party" system aren't perfect, but damn this man is so close. Just being able to LISTEN without gagging (as with Trump) is a blessing.

This is what happens when you get a candidate with two doctorate degrees and not the normal yahoos that typically run for office. You can disagree with his policy ideas, sure, but the guy is brilliant.

He doesn't spew hate and his words aren't divisive.  Thank you!

Brilliant answer. And actually very sensible. No question about it - this Michigander is voting for him!!!

In 2012, El-Sayed wrote an opinion piece for HuffPost in which he expressed disappointment in Obama upon his reelection that year by admitting he didn’t feel the same kind of “euphoria” he felt after Obama won the presidential election in 2008. El-Sayed admitted that he found Obama’s 2008 promise of “hope and change” to be empty and that he only voted for him in 2012 because he felt he “had no other option.”

El-Sayed went on to criticize Obama for pandering too much to the right, allowing the economy to continue “to stagnate,” doing little to combat Islamophobia and expanding “an aimless ‘war on terror’” to “Pakistan and Yemen.”

He even went after Obamacare, calling it “a watered-down reform that kowtows to the interests of healthcare lobbies before it provides meaningful, secure access to healthcare for our society’s most desperate.”

“I wish I could celebrate like it was 2008,” El-Sayed said of Obama’s 2012 win. “But the reality says otherwise, and it’s time we came to terms with that if we want any hope for change.”

Obama will join El-Sayed on the campaign trail at a rally in Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Watch his remarks below.

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