There was an interesting exchange on CNN this week in which The Hill’s associate editor, Niall Stanage, tried to clamp down on discussion of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. His gripe: using his full name feeds Islamophobic tendencies. Sorry, but have you seen what this guy stands for? There is something to fear. 

Conservative Jason Rantz quickly made mincemeat of this silly point, noting that we can’t say his full name but he can mention AIPAC any chance he gets, which, of course, is a swipe at Jewish people. This throwdown occurred on August 10. The Manhattan Institute's Jesse Arm also slapped down Stanage’s point.

Stanage: Using El-Sayed's full name is "an appeal to anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment.... [If Haley Stevens would have won, she would have been] shoveling weapons to Mr. Netanyahu with which to kill 70,000 Palestinians." 

Jason Rantz: It always goes back to the Jews. Every single time. It's like a perfect example of some of what you're talking about like the coded language. El-Sayed brings it up AIPAC absolutely every single time he can because he wants to talk about the Jews.

Jesse Arm: We understand that Ireland cares a lot about Palestine. In Michigan, most people don't actually care about Palestine.... People in Michigan are actually scared of Abdul El-Sayed not because of Israel... he's gonna rip away Obamacare. He’s gonna rip away private health insurance from the sixty-six percent of Americans who have it. They ran a campaign where Rashida Tlaib was attacking Haley Stevens for collecting support from General Mills and General Motors. Michiganders don’t like the sound of that anti-business politics.

Most of the people in this DSA base are raging antisemites. We will continue to hammer that until the cows come home, some of whom have veered into using Nazi-like language about Israel and Jewish people in general.