Ask Abdul El-Sayed a question. He might ask you one back. Let’s go Off Script

Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. Welcome to Unbiased Updates Off Script. We spend all

week reporting the news. Now we get to talk about it. Coming up on the podcast, a candidate

for the U.S. Senate has a pretty unusual way of handling tough questions. He fires back

with questions of his own. Is Abdul El Saeed calling out unfair attacks or is he just dodging

the questions. I'll ask our senior politics reporter. Why are you asking me that? Come out

and just say the thing that you're implying. It is fascinating. It is making people who support him

like him even more. Plus, AI needs a lot of power and we mean a lot. So much that tech companies are

now building power plants to run their data centers. But our energy reporter found some of

those plants are getting approved with little public input and the communities are pushing back

And Ukraine says it just pulled off a first in warfare using a flying drone to rescue a wounded

soldier from the front lines. We'll tell you how they did it. Let's start with what matters

what caught our attention this week and why we think it deserves yours. There's a Democratic

Senate candidate in Michigan who's getting a lot of attention, not just for what he says

but how he answers questions. Take a listen to what happened when someone at a town hall campaign

stop asked Abdul El-Sayed to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, the person who asked the

question is off mic, so it's a bit difficult to hear. But what's more interesting is El-Sayed's

response. Take a listen. Abdul, will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood? What's your name? No

what's your name? No, what's your name? No, no, what's your name? No, your friends got the mic

I'm asking you a simple question. You give me your name, I'll answer the question. Okay, Tommy

Hi, Tommy. How are you? I'm great. Are you? Do you know what the Constitution of the United States is

I have one simple question. Will you disavow the most important? Sure. Yeah, absolutely

But I want to ask the question that you're asking. Why are you asking the question

Well, because they're a terrorist group. Okay. No, no, but what are you implying

Do you assume that I wouldn't? Yes. Why not? Because I have not heard you disavow them yet

Have you disavowed them? I haven't heard you disavow them yet. I disavow them. Do you? Great. Now, he did eventually say yes, he does denounce the group

but not before turning the tables and asking nearly three dozen questions of his own

And this isn't the first time he's done it. Here's another example on Fox News

when asked about his support for gender-affirming care. So you think it's okay for a parent

to slash his kid's thing on the university? You think that's okay

I mean, do you... So do you really want to have this conversation Are you circumcised

Yeah, yeah, but I mean, that's a personal question, doctor. So you probably should want to move on

You probably should want to move on. Is circumcision different than castration

I think it's a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens between a parent

a doctor, and a patient. And I'm just saying that, yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid's ding-a-ling

So if you really want to bring that up, you can. I just think you guys are really selective about how you want to talk about these things

these things. So is El-Sayed challenging the premise of unfair questions or just getting

really good at not answering them? Ozzy, thanks again for joining us on Offscript. I had a chance

to read your article. I really enjoy your reporting, something I've already told you

time and time again. Oh, thank you. Well, you know, you can cash at me later. Tell me a little

bit about Abdul El-Sayed and how he's handling some tough questions on the campaign trail. I'm

curious to know how his approach compares to what we've seen from other candidates

So elections are a popularity contest. You have to convince people to vote for you as opposed to

somebody else. And many people use that as the opportunity to say, be nice, be welcoming. Even

if you don't like something, try to turn the other cheek and show a bit of grace, even when

something is not working out your way. Voters don't want to see people often being antagonistic

when there's a good faith question being asked of them. That isn't quite happening here. Now

Abdul El-Sayed is a physician. He worked in public health in the Detroit area. And if elected

he would be the first Muslim elected in the U.S. Senate. Because of this historic nature of his

candidacy, and because he is an outspoken critic of the U.S. support of the government of Israel

there has been a lot of questions thrown at him that he, by his nature, seems to think are

illegitimate. So rather than answering the question that he gets asked, he takes it as an

opportunity to question the person posing him the question and basically saying, why are you asking

me that? Come out and just say the thing that you're implying. It is fascinating. It is making

people who support him like him even more. And it is also challenging people who are asking him

questions about his stance on Israel, his stance on terrorist groups and things like that. He's

making them come out and say what it is that's behind their question. And it's not something that

we're seeing a lot of on the campaign trail. Is this an effective strategy? I don't know how we

would measure it, but is this something that, you know, that people have responded positively to

because, you know, this, his campaign has kind of been a machine of, you know, viral moments and a

a lot of them right extremely online using a lot of language yeah the language of the internet

or like a npc like like non-player character or something like that it's the kind of like stuff

that you heard coming out of 4chan and through republican politics and he's one of the few

democrats that uses that kind of language and the demeanor he has you know he's sort of like a

former football high school player. He still works out. He's like buff

And he's cutting like a different profile of the kind of candidates

that Democrats have normally run. And he's cutting against a lot of the caricatures

that Republicans try to argue is a Democratic candidate. So is it working

In the room, it sounds like it is. He gets clicks online

If your campaign makes a video of your own candidate and it doesn't sort of do well online

then you really have some problems. But it's getting people's attention because it shows a fight

but it also shows something substantive. Most recently, there was this exchange

where he's at a town hall event, and literally as he's turning away

you see it on the screen, he's turning away, he's walking on the stage somewhere, and you hear a voice yell out

In fact, the thing that most, consultants will say is, if there's something negative and you're explaining it, you're losing

Like you hear that all the time from communication consultants. If you're explaining, you're losing. Al-Sayed is leaning into the explanation, except he makes himself the one asking. And he's saying

why are you asking me that question? Have you asked other people that question? I haven't heard

you denounce that This is something I want to encourage our viewers and our listeners to go back and watch if they haven seen it already because it has become something that we seen more than once

while he's been on the campaign trail. And this kind of leads into the other portion, not just how

he has been answering questions with questions, but how religion has become a big part of the

conversation around his candidacy. Talk to us a little bit about that. How has religion really

shaped the conversation around his candidacy? It's an issue that he gets asked about directly

and indirectly. And for a candidate running in a competitive Senate seat in Michigan

you know, a swing state, it's a battleground state, it's elected Democrats and Republicans

So when he gets asked a question about his own personal identity, he often, later in the campaign season, he often sort of shrinks that answer and says, the thing that's really important is the price of groceries

My last name is not the reason why your grocery bill is high

My first name is not the reason why you can't see a doctor

My middle name is not the reason why your tax bill is going up

He makes this connection, not excusing in any way who he is and apologizing for it, but he's saying, if you're worried about those kitchen table issues, that question is not going to answer it. It's sort of immaterial

But what has been very clear in 2026 is that Republicans have sought to gain attention by framing a threat coming out of the Muslim community that they say needs to be addressed

They use the word Sharia law as a stand-in for some kind of imposition of Islamic rule that the country needs to be protected from

It's not happening. It's very much a dog whistle. And we can follow that conversation all the way to the end, and we sort of know where it goes

what El-Sayed is trying to do and it's a challenge I think

that a lot of historic candidates face the first black president the first woman running for a particular office

now we have a Muslim a person who is Muslim who happens to be Muslim that is running for Senate

there's the question of the weight of history are you facing questions that other people wouldn't face

because of your identity And what he has tried to do is acknowledge the identity and historic nature, but keep the focus on the issue that he thinks are going to cut his way rather than his opponents

Mike Rogers, former FBI agent, has raised the issue of terrorism, has raised his background in fighting terrorism

And that's been seen as a very subtle way of saying, I am the anti-terrorism guy

you know uh and it it abdul al-sayed's critics have said the emphasis and the focus that mike

rogers is putting on that issue is a way of othering a person who looks like abdul al-sayed

who was born in the u.s his parents are um immigrants from egypt and they've even called

into question his you know all sorts of manner of his american nature yeah his his i his identity

has become a talking point where he wants his politics to be front and center

Before I let you go, Ozzy, I'd be remiss not to mention the fact that former President

Barack Obama will be campaigning with El-Sayed very soon. There's a clip of El-Sayed talking about his relationship to former President Obama

and likening him to a parent that, let's say, you don't really disagree with, but you love anyway

That you do disagree with, but you love anyway. Right, that you do disagree with, but you love anyway

Yeah. I mean, what do you make of his criticisms while also still tapping into the president's ability to galvanize voters

It is something that appears to be necessary. Barack Obama is still, by and large, more popular than he is unpopular, especially with black voters, who is a constituency that Abdul El-Sayed appears not to have made as many inroads as you would think a Democrat would traditionally

and that could be crucial abdul al-sayed's criticisms of you know israeli prime minister

benjamin yahoo and the israeli campaign in gaza and the west bank has helped fuel

criticism of him from jewish voters who appear to be open to voting for a republican in the past

where they may not have been. So that cleaving of like that block of voters or some set of that

voters makes it even more important to hold on to other constituencies in a democratic

you know, winning faction and bringing the first and so far only black president to campaign with

you when you need to sort of shore up members of that community. It seems like a smart move

although he has been on the record criticizing Obama's two terms by essentially saying he didn't

go far enough. It wasn't really a directional argument. Progress is always something that you

have to exceed previous expectations. And it is hard to galvanize progressive voters if the person

you're now praising and standing next to is someone that they view as having fallen short

But, you know, in the final days of an election, anyone that you think can help you out, you're going to find a way to be friends with them and invite them over and see if you can make it into the end zone

Is that the right sports ogy? That was incredible. I will say if I was campaigning right now, I would be making a call to senior politics reporter Ozzy Pabra to come show face for my campaign, Ozzy

as always thank you for the time and your reporting and I look forward to catching up

with you again soon as we get closer and closer to the midterm so thanks so much for being on

Offscript. Thanks for having me. The comment section can be a pretty loud place so every day we pick a question or comment worth

a closer look and see where the facts take us. We got a couple of comments about our report

Tuesday about the U.S. holding up Patriot missiles for Ukraine. Ashton Black on YouTube says

stop giving them our weapons. Mac McElveen wrote, pay for your own war. Does the American

voter want gas down or not? So why does America send weapons to Ukraine anyway? First, national

security. The argument is that stopping Russia and Ukraine could prevent a much bigger conflict

in Europe, one that might eventually involve American troops. Second, who pays? The U.S. has provided billions

in military aid but under a newer NATO program European allies are also paying for American weapons sent to Ukraine And third there a trade Those weapons cost money and take time

to replace. America needs them too. So the debate isn't just whether we should help Ukraine

it's whether helping now reduces the risk of a much bigger war later

We love hearing from you, so keep those comments coming into us here at Straight Arrow

You can leave them on our YouTube page or email us at offscript at san.com

Okay, now let's go inside the story. Each week we grab one of our reporters and go a little deeper

We discuss what didn't make the story, the questions that came up, and what they found while reporting it

We all know AI is booming, but here's something you might not know

Some of the data centers powering it are now getting their own power plants, and that's raising questions about pollution, oversight, and how much say the people living

nearby actually get. Our energy reporter, Keaton Peters, dug into the permits and found a growing

number of projects using a less rigorous approval process. He also met a Texas family that put

construction of their dream home on hold after learning a massive data center and power plant

could be built across the street. So how is all of this happening and who's keeping an eye on it

Keaton, thank you so much for joining us on Offscript. In this piece, you've outlined how

companies building data centers are bypassing a normal regulatory process by doing two things

One, bringing their own power, and then two, making their facilities smaller

What more can you tell us about what your reporting covered? And another question is, when did this become a trend

Yeah. So first, to be really clear about what's happening, you know, there are two different air permit

processes when you are looking to build a new power plant. You've got major source, which is just a threshold where the EPA has said, hey, this is a lot of potential air emissions of, you know, not just like CO2 and methane, those things that you might think about, but like particulate matter that can cause, you know, lung issues, other compounds that have been known to cause health problems

So if it's over a certain threshold, the EPA says, hey, you have to have a public comment period. You have to go through these more stringent reviews. Now, a minor source is just below that threshold, usually around 250 tons. We don't need to get into the numbers

But, you know, below that threshold, the EPA doesn't all, you know, the states are left to do what they want with that a little bit more. And so at least in some states like Texas, where I am, you know, there are not requirements that every minor source permit has to go through those public comments, even letting people know that it's happening is not always a requirement

So what you're seeing is in cases where the data centers are being located alongside a power plant and that power plant is really only being built for the big tech facility

There are ways where they're making sure they fit in the minor source category really because it is a time saver

And this is happening in a number of states where they'll either say we have less emissions or they'll even split projects into multiple facilities, multiple permits

Now, when did it become a trend? At least in Texas, I did some exclusive data ysis for Straight Arrow that found there was a surge in this type of permit for an electric generating unit connected to the natural gas grid

And that happened in 2024 and 2025. You know, this is a permit that before then, think of like, if you're a major retailer, maybe you have a generator for if the power goes out

And if that's connected to the natural gas grid, as opposed to just like off grid diesel, then, you know, then you need a permit like this

So it's always been a thing that these permits have been issued. But in 2024 and 2025, we saw it go up from like there would be 30 to maybe 70 or 80 a year to well over 100

In 2025, there were about 158 of these permit applications at the Texas Environmental Regulatory Agency

I want to focus in on this woman that you featured in your piece

you introduced us to a woman who said that she feels stuck in a way, right? She's building her

dream home, then learns a data center will be built near her. And she's already committed

you know, $100,000 of her own money to this project. Tell me more about her story and what

that says about people like her in this position, and how they're being impacted by this

No, thanks for that. And I really encourage folks listening to this to go and read the piece because the lead is about this woman's name, Mary Santana. And this is a community about 40 minutes outside of Austin, Texas

And she was three days from pouring the concrete on a project she'd been working on for years to build her dream home for her husband and five of their youngest children

And that's when she found out about the project that was proposed, you know, basically across the street, about a half mile away, according to her

And, you know, I think that it's reasonable for folks to want to know who is our new neighbor, like how is this process working

And there are a lot of communities like that, that as a reporter working on issues around the grid, building power plants, data centers consume a lot of energy

I think that there are a lot of cases of similar groups of neighbors that are just asking questions about, you know, how does this approved

And the reason why the minor permit designation is important for this facility by a company called Pacifico Power that is under a minor source permit in Texas is that these neighbors don't have a legal process under which they can go and say

we have concerns about, you know, whatever it is, the emissions from that potential changes to

their neighborhood. They're kind of left feeling like the process went around them, where the

company had been planning it for a number of years, but they only found out a few months ago

And for Mary, it was when this, you know, she was hoping to have her house built by Christmas

And so that feeling of being stuck is because she thinks, well, I don't know if I want to be this close to it

And if it does get built and I want to move can I really sell my property to someone who going to want to live this close to a power plant And it not to say that these companies are doing anything wrong by going through a different process again bringing their own power

making the facilities smaller. What have you heard from them about instances like

you know, what's outlined in your reporting? What are they saying about why, or are they saying

why they are going a different route in terms of getting these facilities built and getting them

approved. Yeah, this is important because this is a perfectly, you know, normal legal process that

exists where there are these two types of permits. The main issue that I hear from watchdog groups

you know, like nonprofits that are, you know, really digging into this thing and trying to be

an advocate for those communities is that there are two, they say, loopholes that these companies

are taking, which is to either put an artificial limit on basically saying, sure, if we operated

24-7 or a majority of the hours out of the year, we would exceed this emissions threshold

But on the permit, they say, we're going to set a limit on how many hours a year we can operate

The question is who enforces that? And the other sort of loophole, as it's being described by some of my sources, is what I said earlier to split it into different projects and to have three different permits, but it's really all feeding the same data center

They're all within a very short geographic distance from each other. That's what's at issue here and what's really being pointed at as a misuse of the minor source designation

Now, to your question about what the companies are saying, for the most part, I am reaching out to all of the companies that are mentioned in the article

A number of them did not respond to our request for comment

Those that did, you know, tended to just point to, hey, our state, the state environmental

agency approved this. We went through the normal process. And, you know, all of this is just us following what is laid out

So I think it is reasonable for a company to submit whatever permit application they feel

is best. What this speaks to is more, I think, how the scale of the AI build-out is so large that it's challenging some of the existing structures within our government when it comes to how these things are normally approved

How has this issue of data centers animated voters ahead of the midterms, especially considering how close we are to a midterm election

What's been the impact there on how voters are thinking about data centers

Yeah. I mean, my perspective on that question is informed on having written about folks like Mary Santana and these projects for two years now

And I can tell you anecdotally that there are individuals in Texas and other states that will vote for a different party this time around because they view whatever party is in power and they perceive as having tried to build more data centers

and they don't like that. So for some folks, this is like the top issue

that they will vote for the other party this time around. Keaton, thank you so much for talking a bit

about your reporting and kind of clarifying some of the issues surrounding it

I appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us on Offscript and we hope we get a chance to talk to you again

sometime soon. Pleasure to be here with you, Christian, and happy to come back anytime

Again, Keaton's story is titled, She was building her dream home, then came a data center's minor power plant on a shortcut permit

Check it out on our site or on the Straight Arrow app. We cover a lot every morning on Unbiased Updates, but there are always a few stories we just can't

squeeze in. So here are some that we think are also worth your time. Ukraine says it just pulled

off something never before done on a battlefield, rescuing a wounded soldier with a flying drone

And the story behind this rescue is remarkable. The Ukrainian military says the soldier had been

stranded on the front lines for 500 days, trapped in an area surrounded by mines and Russian drones

He was wounded in a drone attack earlier this year and according to Ukrainian officials

was forced to partially amputate both of his own legs while waiting for help

Ground teams couldn't reach him, so on Monday, Ukrainian forces sent in a heavy-lift drone originally designed to drop bombs

They modified it to carry a person safely, then used other drones to distract Russian forces while they flew him out

Ukraine says it's the first battlefield rescue of its kind. An Australian lawmaker has lost both of her legs after police say a driver deliberately ran her down Monday

Independent MP Helen Haynes was hit near her office in the state of Victoria

Her husband says doctors had to amputate one leg after the attack and the other on Wednesday

He says she's now in stable condition. But the good news in all this is Helen is alive and she's stable

That is the most important thing for our family. Helen's road to recovery will be long and difficult, but we know she is a fighter

Police are still investigating a motive. The 43-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after the attack and appeared in court Wednesday

facing several state and federal charges. His lawyer says he has a neurological condition and a concussion and may also have undiagnosed

mental health issues. And finally today, here's the kicker, the story we're sending you out with

It's 2026 and flying cars are finally here. Sort of. Tesla has finally unveiled its new Roadster sports car after years of delays

And this thing does more than drive. It has SpaceX thrusters that can briefly lift it off the ground

and Tesla says it can go from zero to 60 in under a second. Elon Musk posted on social media

turns out the future does have flying cars, but don't start clearing space in your garage just

yet. Production isn't expected to begin until 2028. And there's still the question of whether

these things will even be street legal. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he wants to make sure

they're allowed in his state. He joked that at the very least, they could be used to leapfrog golf

carts, which if you've spent any time in Florida, you know might actually come in handy. By the way

if you haven't seen the video, we'll put it on the site for you, san.com or our app

Okay, that's it for us this week. Thanks for listening to Unbiased Updates Offscript

If you've made it this far, email us. We actually want to hear from you to help shape the show

Email us at offscript at san.com, offscript at san.com. For all of us here at Straight Arrow

I'm Christian Bryant. We'll see you next week. Thank you