{"id":32830,"date":"2026-08-08T16:54:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32830"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:54:48","slug":"el-sayed-under-fire-for-resurfaced-clip-trashing-michigans-mackinac-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32830","title":{"rendered":"El-Sayed under fire for resurfaced clip trashing Michigan\u2019s Mackinac Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Election_2_26_Michigan_Senate_76768_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A resurfaced documentary clip shows Michigan Democratic Senate nominee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/abdul-el-sayed\/\">Abdul El-Sayed<\/a> complaining about \u201chating\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/mackinac-island\/\">Mackinac Island<\/a>, one of the state\u2019s most popular tourist destinations.<\/p>\n<p>The footage, taken from the 2020 documentary \u201cHow to Fix a Primary\u201d about Mr. El-Sayed\u2019s unsuccessful 2018 run for governor, shows him walking through the island as he says, \u201cI hate Mackinac so much.\u201d Mr. El-Sayed can also be heard suggesting that if his campaign had won, the governor\u2019s summer residence on the island would have become his own vacation spot, adding that he had never enjoyed visiting despite the trip.<\/p>\n<p>The clip was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themidwesterner.news\/2026\/08\/abdul-el-sayed-i-hate-mackinac-so-much-dem-senate-candidate-rips-on-top-michigan-destination\/\">posted<\/a> by Michigan outlet The Midwesterner on Friday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/mackinac-island\/\">Mackinac Island<\/a> is known for its ban on cars, horse-drawn carriages, Victorian architecture and fudge shops, and was named the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mackinacisland.org\/blog\/post\/mackinac-island-goes-back-to-back-to-back\/\">Best Summer Travel Destination<\/a> in the country by USA Today readers in 2025 for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mr. El-Sayed addressed the clip directly Friday afternoon, responding to a post from the conservative account End Wokeness by questioning whether a place that \u201cbans cars\u201d could be considered the most American place in Michigan.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times&#8217; AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times&#8217; original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/ai-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\">AI policy<\/a> or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/7\/el-sayed-fire-resurfaced-clip-trashing-michigans-mackinac-island\/mailto:sfink@washingtontimes.com\">sfink@washingtontimes.com<\/a><br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/7\/el-sayed-fire-resurfaced-clip-trashing-michigans-mackinac-island\/mailto:aispotlight@washingtontimes.com\">aispotlight@washingtontimes.com<\/a>.<br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A resurfaced documentary clip shows Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed complaining about \u201chating\u201d Mackinac Island, one of the state\u2019s most popular tourist destinations. The footage, taken from the 2020 documentary \u201cHow to Fix a Primary\u201d about Mr. El-Sayed\u2019s unsuccessful 2018 run for governor, shows him walking through the island as he says, \u201cI hate&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Election_2_26_Michigan_Senate_76768_c0-0-2380-1388_s1200x700.jpg?2e3245aa724c95e3c2d8c555b82aadf8fd84f310","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}