El-Sayed Wants Ted Cruz's "Jihadist Leprechaun" Slur on a Hat After Senate Win

Abdul El-Sayed isn't letting the insults slide — he's merchandising them. Two days after becoming the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, the Michigan Democrat swung by “The View” Thursday and laughed off Ted Cruz's “jihadist leprechaun” jab with a pitch of his own. “I want a hat!” he told the co-hosts.

Sunny Hostin walked him through the greatest hits from the campaign's final weeks, including Vice President JD Vance's suggestion that there was something “very, very evil” about him and Cruz's leprechaun line. Hostin also raised Trump's October rally in Michigan, where the president called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” invoked the Sept. 11 attacks and said he'd “have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate.”

The 42-year-old, who beat Republican Mike Rogers, said the attacks weren't really aimed at him at all. “They weren't attacking me. They were attacking the idea of an America big enough for me,” he said, crediting Michigan voters instead. “I didn't take a bet on my abilities or anything. I took a bet on the goodness of the people of Michigan.”

He also argued the GOP's strategy was a dead end, not a winning message. “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,” El-Sayed said. “But they didn't have anything to say.” He described the pivot to “red meat” as an addiction that forces politicians to “double down” and “triple down again.”

On the metal detector taunt, El-Sayed held his ground, repeating a challenge he first threw at Trump during a Kalamazoo rally last week. “I'll do a metal detector test all day because I have nothing to hide,” he said, then aimed straight at the president: “Donald, if you're watching, a lie detector is still on the table.”