‘Really Clever!’ Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles Admits Abdul El-Sayed’s Videos Are ‘Smart Messaging’

Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles complimented Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on his “clever” social media marketing, but warned it will never work for Republicans.

Knowles joined Lydia Moynihan on the New York Post’s Pod Force One Wednesday, and during a discussion about the midterms, Knowles offered compliments to El-Sayed and his social media presence.

Moynihan said that “people seem to love” El-Sayed’s lip-sync videos and other clips, despite others thinking they’re “cringy.” She asked if Republicans should be taking a page out of El-Sayed’s playbook.

Knowles said:

Please, please no. If anyone takes anything from this conversation, please do not do that. The reason it works for Abdul El-Sayed is because his base is college-educated white liberals. That’s why he can go out there and do a Blue’s Clues dance or “I Want to Dance with Somebody” and that appeals to them. The other reason it’s smart messaging for Abdul El-Sayed is that one of the attacks on him is that he’s a secret Jihadi or something like that, so a way to counter that is to lean in on him being gay, basically. Just seeming like a very effeminate moderate.

The Blue’s Clues line is in reference to a resurfaced campaign video of El-Sayed using the kids’ show format to sell himself as a candidate.

Knowles argued El-Sayed is going for “millennial nostalgia” to win over white voters in Michigan. El-Sayed is running against Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

“There’s millennial nostalgia to him doing little Blue’s Clues videos, but I think it’s really clever for Abdul El-Sayed. He needs to win 80% of the Muslims in Dearborn,” Knowles said. “I think he’s going to win them anyway, so it’s really about appealing to the white liberals. However, it won’t work for Republicans. We just have different bases.”

Watch above via Pod Force One.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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