An unlikely friendship? Jesse Watters admits he likes Abdul El-Sayed - just not his policies

Fox News host Jesse Watters admitted he personally likes Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, even though he strongly disagrees with the candidate’s policies.The rightwing anchor made the remark Tuesday after a 25-minute, one-on-one interview with El-Sayed, who has campaigned on taking money out of politics and passing Medicare for All. Their discussion ranged from gun rights to immigration enforcement to health care.“I actually like Abdul. I probably shouldn’t like him, but I do,” the Fox News host said. “I think he’d be a terrible senator and he’s a little bit of a lunatic…But at least he’s not your typical stiff.”The interview grew contentious at times. El-Sayed accused Watters of focusing on culture war issues that matter little to voters, while Watters called the candidate “wacky” and claimed he was dodging questions.There were also moments of levity. At one point, El-Sayed described his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, as a “beta” for not having appeared on Watters’ show, prompting the host to laugh.Fox News host Jesse Watters (left) admitted that he personally likes Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, though he is not fond of his policies (Fox News, YouTube)The exchange largely followed the format of Watters pressing El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former director of Detroit’s health department, over his past remarks.At one point, Watters played a clip in which El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, appeared to equate an effort to ban Sharia law with white supremacy.“Nobody is trying to put Sharia law on anyone else,” the candidate replied. “The issue in Michigan that people are worried about is not that somebody's gonna come and put Sharia law on them, the issue is how they’re gonna afford their gas.”Watters later challenged El-Sayed over his past comments about guns.“You also said this: you want to replace the right to bear arms with the right to health care,” the host said. “You don’t want to replace the Second Amendment do you?El-Sayed replied: “Well look man, I think more people are more worried about whether or not they can see a doctor than whether or not they can have a gun. I’m just gonna put that out there.”“I think you dodged the question,” Watters shot back.Abdul El-Sayed, an an epidemiologist and former director of Detroit’s health department, won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary earlier this month. He will face off against Republican Mike Rogers in November (AFP via Getty Images)One exchange produced an odd moment when Watters asked whether El-Sayed, who won the Democratic primary earlier this month, supports “sex changes for minors.”El-Sayed replied that he does not believe the government should dictate what health care Americans can receive. But, Watters pressed him, asking: “So, you think it’s ok for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off?”El-Sayed then asked Watters whether he had been circumcised.“Yeah, but that's personal question, doctor,” Watters said, appearing perplexed and laughing. “Circumcision is different than castration.”“It’s a problem that you think you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient,” the Senate hopeful shot back.Toward the end of the interview, Watters applauded El-Sayed for appearing on Fox News but said he believed the candidate was misguided.“I give you credit for facing the music, but some of this stuff’s just straight up wacky,” he said.“At the end of the day, you know what’s wacky?” the Michigan Democrat responded. “We got a president of the United States who cares more about the drapes in a ballroom that shouldn’t be built than he cares about the war he just got us into or than he cares about the affordability crisis.”El-Sayed will face Rogers, a former congressman, on November 3. Multiple recent polls indicate that the race could be close.