El-Sayed addresses past Obama criticism, says Democrats now ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) on Sunday addressed past criticism he made about former President Obama and said that he and other Democratic candidates “stand on the shoulders of giants” like the former president.

“Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker from NBC News asked El-Sayed about his past remarks on Obama. He wrote after the former president’s reelection in 2012 in a Huffington Post op-ed that “Obama was not the right choice. He just wasn’t the wrong one.” El-Sayed also named off his disagreements with Obama’s record of deportations and expansion of drone warfare in the Middle East, among other criticisms.

“Well, we’ve lived through two Trump terms now,” El-Sayed responded. “So, look, I know that President Obama was handed a really difficult set of circumstances, and he did his best.”

El-Sayed later said that his campaign and Democratic candidates in 2026 might “push on in different ways than his administration.”

“But it is to say that where we push differently is because we’ve learned from what he’s done and because we stand on the shoulders of giants,” the Michigan Democrat said. “And so, I am so grateful to have been a young man in my 20s with Barack Hussein Obama as president. I would never have seen myself running for office.”

El-Sayed said he could not fully express how much he appreciates the former president and described Obama as having the “elegance, the grace, the commitment under pressure” for being given “the basket of terrible things he was handed by the [former President George W.] Bush era” and that Obama “handled it all.”

“You go up and you start to appreciate just how hard change is and how important it is to pick up and push,” the candidate said.

Obama is set to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24, the Great Lakes State’s first day of in-person early voting, nearly one month after former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned with El-Sayed. Obama will also campaign alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson.

El-Sayed said in a statement last Tuesday that he “cannot wait” for Obama to return to Michigan, calling him “a champion for healthcare access and a historical trailblazer of our time.”

“He knows what it means to deliver for Michiganders – that’s why he won our state twice,” El-Sayed said. “His support is critical as we fight to put Michigan families first by bringing down costs and ending Trump’s chaos in Washington.”

The Hill’s election partner Decision Desk HQ projects a 70-percent probability of El-Sayed winning the Senate race and defeating Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who the election handicapper gave a 30-percent probability of fending off the Democrat.