Michigan Senator Elect Abdul El-Sayed said Democrats have not yet earned a “mandate” and need to “do good things” with their new majorities in Congress in order to win Americans’ trust.
On Thursday, El-Sayed extended an olive branch to Donald Trump with a proposal to name a universal health care plan after The Donald, complete with Trumpcare Gold Cards.
“Folks understand that there’s a moment here, and we can’t squander it. We haven’t earned the mandate. If anything, this was a vote against Donald Trump and Trumpism, and our job over the next two years is to earn a vote for us, and that’s going to be a choice about how we govern,” El-Sayed said from his new office in Washington.
El-Sayed, a physician and the son of Egyptian immigrants, ran Detroit’s health department before going into politics. He says one public insurance program would fix the mess, and the gold card is his newest way of asking Trump to sign on.
“My margin in Michigan was a lot bigger than his. So maybe he might want to come call me, and we could talk about what we could do to deliver. … I’m open to putting his name on, like, the key issue I’ve been spending my entire career fighting for, right? I’ll change the name of my book,” said El-Sayed, who penned “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide” in 2021. “I will work with anyone when it comes to trying to get money out of politics, put money in pockets and pass TrumpCare for All.”
El-Sayed suggested that the cancellation of planned Medicaid cuts that start in January could be one area where GOP lawmakers in Congress cross over to vote with Democrats.
“They see the writing on the wall,” he said. “Medicaid cuts: Do you know where they’re going to be the most disastrous? Rural communities. So if you’re from Idaho or Wyoming or Montana or the Dakotas, this is about to destroy your entire healthcare system. They know that.”
In January, he will replace retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters and become the first Muslim in the U.S. Senate, and will be sworn in by “Habibi” JD Vance who has called him “evil,” “radical,” and “a little weasel.”
El-Sayed will be sworn in on a Quran, although he is deciding which book he will lay his hand on. One option is a copy owned by Thomas Jefferson, now housed at the Library of Congress. Detroit- native Keith Ellison used it in his swearing in as the first Muslim in Congress in 2007. A second option is the oldest Quran in the state of Michigan, housed at the University of Michigan, his alma mater. The book is hundreds of years old.