‘Good on Him!’ Morning Joe Crew Praises Fox News’ Jesse Watters After ‘Weird’ Interview

The Morning Joe crew lauded rival network Fox News and host Jesse Watters for his interview with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, an exchange that co-host Mika Brzezinski noted got “weird at times.”

The pair sparred over issues ranging from immigration and taxes to the Second Amendment and President Donald Trump’s war in Iran after El-Sayed appeared for a live interview on Jesse Watters Primetime on Monday, although the exchange took a particularly unexpected turn when Watters pressed El-Sayed on gender-transition procedures for minors, prompting the candidate to turn a question back on his host by asking: “Are you circumcized?”

After rolling back clips from several moments throughout the 30-minute interview, Brzezinski kicked off the commentary.

“OK, actually celebrate Fox News and Jesse Watters giving extended time to an interview like this,” she began. “It did get weird at times where like the issue of circumcision came up, but there was a point behind it.”

Pressing her guest for his take, Politico’s Politics Bureau chief Jonathan Martin praised El-Sayed as someone who clearly has “got the goods” and is “very talented” but warned that the real question was whether the candidate could “make this race about Donald Trump” and not “about him.”

“There’s very few states where [Trump’s trade war with Canada] could more adversely impact American politics, and specifically the Republican Party, than Michigan. Why let that be the issue instead of yourself and your own desire to get into a spat with Jesse Watters? I’m not sure,” he said.

Co-host Willie Geist, however, interjected to again offer respect to Fox News for having El-Sayed on, saying the moment could have been an opportunity for the Democrat to pick up “disaffected Trump voters.”

“So good on him for going on,” Geist said. “Good on Jesse Watters for having him on. But they did focus a lot on cultural stuff.”

Co-host Jonathan Lemire responded by striking a more cautious note, arguing that Fox News was a “proxy” for the Republican Party and credited the bold move to go on-air to “trade blows” with Watters.

“And he did,” Brzezinski said. “And there was a lot of talking over and yelling and some interesting misinformation there or facts that were jumbled. But, I still think it’s great that Fox had him on, and I think it’s great he went on.”

She continued to say that there had been some “great sparring” on some key issues around healthcare and taxation that “was healthy” as she said more Democrats should “step up, go on Fox News [and] for Fox News to have Democrats on” to present “different points of view” for audiences.

“So I thought this was really, actually, constructive. It was a little hard to watch at times, but at the same time, I commend him for going on, and I commend Jesse Watters for having him on, and I hope there’s more of it still ahead,” she concluded.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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