The Michigan Primary and the Company You Keep

On the day of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, Glenn Beck argues that Abdul El-Sayed—a physician, Rhodes Scholar, and former Detroit health commissioner—is poised to win the nomination, and that voters should pay attention not to what he calls himself, but to whose company he keeps. "Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future," Beck repeats throughout the episode, a line he attributes to his mother. El-Sayed says plainly he is not a socialist. He tells the Wall Street Journal he believes in capitalism and is not part of the Democratic Socialists of America. But Beck points to the endorsements: Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, every member of the Squad. Between 2017 and 2020, El-Sayed spoke at six DSA events and headlined a fundraiser that raised $10,000 for the organization. He campaigned alongside Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has said "all of his action" shows his rhetoric was not satire. Beck's argument is that the label a candidate uses matters less than the room he chooses to stand in. "A man's convictions tell you what he intends. His friends tell you what he'll be able to do, what he's willing to do."

The Historical Precedent: Henry Wallace