Senator Ted Cruz reportedly didn’t hold back over the weekend, tearing into Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for drawing a comparison between his support for trans surgeries on minors and the practice of circumcision. The Texas Republican said he was stunned that a medical doctor would even attempt to make such a connection.
Cruz’s comments stemmed from a viral exchange that took place on Fox News last week, when host Jesse Watters directly asked El-Sayed whether he thought it was appropriate to allow a child to undergo gender-related surgery. Rather than answering the question head-on, El-Sayed turned it back on Watters, asking him if he himself was circumcised.
Speaking Saturday in Iowa while campaigning for Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, Cruz called El-Sayed’s response bizarre. He recounted how Watters had pressed El-Sayed on his support for what Cruz described as mutilating the genitals of children, only for El-Sayed to sidestep with the circumcision question — a response Cruz found especially stunning given that El-Sayed is a doctor by training.
Cruz paused during his remarks to let the moment sink in with the crowd, pointing out what he called an obvious and significant difference between circumcision and the procedures in question. He expressed disbelief that a medical professional would try to equate the two, accusing El-Sayed of blurring the line between distinctly different things. Cruz went further, framing the moment as an example of a broader tactic he accused the left of using: distorting the truth to deflect from tough questions.
Watters himself appeared just as taken aback during the original interview on August 24, telling El-Sayed plainly that circumcision and castration are not the same thing. El-Sayed pushed back, arguing that decisions about medical care for children should remain between a parent, a doctor, and a patient, not something dictated by outside figures. He maintained that circumcision is, in fact, a surgical procedure performed on a child, suggesting that if Watters wanted to raise the issue of childhood surgery, that comparison was fair game.
Following the interview, Watters offered a mixed take on El-Sayed, saying he personally liked him and found him different from the typical stiff political candidate. Still, Watters didn’t mince words about his assessment of El-Sayed’s fitness for office, calling him a bit of a lunatic and predicting he would make a terrible senator if elected.
The exchange has continued to draw attention as it intersects with the broader national debate over gender-related medical care for minors, an issue that remains deeply divisive heading into the midterm elections. Cruz’s remarks in Iowa suggest Republicans plan to keep spotlighting the moment as a case study in what they view as evasive answers from Democratic candidates on hot-button cultural issues.
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