Rep. Haley Stevens, R-Mich., repeatedly called Abdul El-Sayed the «celebrity» candidate in the Michigan Senate race during Monday’s Senate Democratic debate, arguing that El-Sayed’s podcast, books and political activism pale in comparison to her time in Congress.

The race between Stevens and El-Sayed has become a microcosm of the battle over the Democratic Party’s future. On Aug. 4, Democratic voters will decide whether to back Stevens, who has the support of the Democratic establishment, or El-Sayed, a socialist-supported challenger who has called for abolishing ICE and is strongly critical of the United States’ support for Israel.

In her opening remarks, Stevens rattled off her qualifications as the Democratic Party’s best chance of winning the Senate race, pointing to flipping her seat in 2018, being named Michigan’s most effective Democratic lawmaker by the Center for Effective Lawmaking in 2025 and being endorsed by Democratic Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

«My only focus is you,» Stevens said. «Abdul is running for celebrity. Republicans are propping up his campaign, and Mike Rogers, just the other day said in a secret phone call that he made it easier for him to win, that he’s the one he wants to run against.»

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Stevens was referring to a phone conversation Republican candidate Mike Rogers had with supporters last month in which he said his campaign would be in «good shape» if El-Sayed were the nominee.

«Look, this isn’t about the D.C. or New York influencer crowd,» Stevens said. «This is about putting Michigan first.»

Later in the debate, Stevens said she is standing up to Trump’s «abuses of powers,» while taking a dig at Abdul by saying she’s doing so without «shouting into a bullhorn, not getting in front of the first camera I see, but doing the hard work.»

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UNITED STATES – MAY 6: Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., speaks during a rally on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol to support research and policies for breast cancer treatment that are at risk by proposed Medicaid cuts, on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

«Look, my opponent here, Abdul, he is such a talented guy,» Stevens said, referring to his three books and his podcast America Dissected. «He’s had all this attention, but the deal is, we don’t need a celebrity candidate. We don’t need a celebrity.»

Stevens then pointed to her six years in the House of Representatives, saying she has been committed to «hard, unglamorous work.»

«That’s going to stand up to this junk that is wreaking havoc and causing chaos right before our very eyes,» Stevens said.

Stevens suggested that Abdul’s Senate campaign is just another «rung on the ladder» for him, pointing to his failed 2018 gubernatorial bid.

«It didn’t work out, so he started the podcast, he wrote the books, and now he’s running for Senate, and he’s already bought the website for president,» Stevens said.

In response, El-Sayed accused Stevens of «cowardice» over her past votes to increase ICE funding, saying the agency should be completely abolished.

MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE ABDUL EL-SAYED DODGES QUESTION ON WHETHER HE STILL SUPPORTS DEFUNDING THE POLICE

«So yeah, I’m going to take the bullhorn and I’m going to say that I think we need to abolish ICE because I am not afraid of what they’re going to say about me,» he said.

He also suggested that Stevens’ focus on his public health podcast was a distraction from the issues that matter most to voters, such as affordability.

«Congresswoman, if you enjoy podcasts about public health, I welcome you to take a listen. You seem very concerned about that,» El-Sayed said. «I’m more concerned about the fact that people can’t pay for their gas, they can’t pay for their groceries.»

The open Senate race in Michigan has garnered national attention, with outside groups spending more than $52 million on the race through mid-July, most of it in support of Stevens, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of FEC reports.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidate Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, greet the crowd after El-Sayed spoke at The People V. The Powerful rally at the Detroit Opera House on July 18, 2026 in Detroit, Mich. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

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El-Sayed, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., has painted Stevens as the candidate of large super PACs such as AIPAC, while saying he has not received a single dollar from corporate interests or super PACs. Before running for Congress, El-Sayed served as Wayne County director of Health and Human Services.

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Meanwhile, the Republican party has deemed Michigan to be one of best pickup opportunities in its effort to maintain control of the Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed and Stevens’ campaigns for comment.

Burma’s government approved the death penalty as punishment for internet scammers just months after the FBI announced a sweeping $8 billion crackdown on scam networks coming from the country, according to the country’s state-backed media.

The Anti-Online Scam Law passed the country’s parliament on Tuesday, green lighting the death penalty for anyone who participates in a scam that in which they «commit violence, torture, unlawfully arrest or detain, or treat any person in a cruel manner,» according to The Global New Light of Myanmar, a media outlet jointly operated by a private company and the country’s Ministry of the Interior.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has become ground zero for digital scams, with criminals often recruiting migrants from other Asian countries with promises of legitimate work only to imprison them and force them to conduct the scams.

In May the FBI announced a massive crackdown on a criminal network in Burma known as the «Democratic Karen Benevolent Army.» The operation resulted in the seizure of 127,000 Bitcoin, worth over $8 billion as of July.

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The scammers, who allegedly have ties to Chinese organized crime, had been specifically targeting Americans in their operations, extracting over $3 million from one elderly American, the FBI previously told Fox News Digital.

In 2025, Chinese, Thai and Burmese authorities liberated more than 7,000 people from locked compounds in Burma.

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Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, stuck in limbo at a compound inside the KK Park, a fraud factory, and a human trafficking hub on the border with Thailand-Myanmar after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, operated by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Feb. 26, 2025. (REUTERS/Stringer)

While the new Anti-Online Scam Law only mandates the death penalty for offenses that lead to another person’s death, the law mandates 10-years in prison for any instance of forced labor in relation to cybercrime

The law’s approval also comes two days before the United Nations International Organization for Migration’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. This year the international body will commemorate the day on July 30 under the theme «Trapped Behind the Scam.»

People from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar, travel in a boat across the Moei river to cross over from Myanmar to Thailand, as seen from Mae Sot District, Tak Province area on October 24, 2025. (SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL/THAI NEWS PIX/AFP via Getty Images)

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«People trapped in scam compounds are victims of trafficking, forced to commit crimes through violence, threats and coercion. They deserve protection, not punishment,» IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement. «We must work together to support survivors, stop traffickers and close the gaps these criminal networks exploit. No country can tackle this alone.»

The United Nations estimate that South Pacific scams resulted in the loss of over $114 billion in 2025.

EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is warning Dr. Anthony Fauci that his presidential pardon has limits ahead of the former public health official’s high-profile day on Capitol Hill.

Fauci is set to testify before a GOP-led Senate panel on Wednesday, days after hundreds of pages of his COVID-19 pandemic-era diary entries were made public.

«We now know why President Biden gave a blanket pardon to Dr. Fauci. While obsessing about his own fame, Dr. Fauci wasn’t truthful with the American people about the origins of COVID and advised schools to be closed,» Comer told Fox News Digital.

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«Americans are still reaping the consequences of Dr. Fauci’s actions. Biden’s pardon doesn’t cover Dr. Fauci’s testimony this week and if he continues to lie, he must be held accountable.»

Fauci was among several recipients of controversial «preemptive pardons» by former President Joe Biden made during the final hours of the Democratic administration.

The pardon covers any offenses from January 1, 2014, through its issue date, or anything related «to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or the White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President.»

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Because the pardon covers conduct during his government service, there will likely be some debate over whether it would protect him from liability stemming from his testimony.

But other House Republicans are also accusing Fauci of behaving in a way that hurts public trust in U.S. health, including the co-chairs of the House GOP Doctors’ Caucus — both of whom are physicians themselves.

Rep. James Comer arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2026. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

«Dr. Fauci, enamored with his own fame and vanity, put politics above science during the pandemic. He is primarily responsible for the resulting multi-generational erosion of trust in American medicine,» Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital. «A perfect example of ego destroying whatever achievements he had prior to the pandemic.»

FAUCI’S NEWLY RELEASED COVID DIARIES REVEAL BIZARRE FIXATION ON FAME AS PANDEMIC DEATHS MOUNTED

Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital that Fauci «must be held accountable» by the House as well as the Senate.

«The release of Dr. Fauci’s diary entries validates what many Americans suspected all along: he was not honest about the origins of COVID-19,» Joyce said. «His fixation on preserving his own image and maintaining a position of power eroded public trust, undermined the integrity of our public health institutions, and failed the American people.»

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., grilled fellow Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., at the start of his nomination hearing. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Diary entries made public by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a longtime Fauci critic and chair of the committee before which Fauci is appearing on Wednesday, show the high-profile doctor reflecting on his pandemic-era fame and raising questions about the disease’s origins.

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Some entries appear to show Fauci taking credit for influencing policies that closed schools during the pandemic, something that has become one of the most hotly debated aspects of how the government handled COVID.

He told the House Oversight Committee in January 2024, however, «I did not close the schools.»

Fauci has long denied any wrongdoing and instead has argued that he’s been made a political target by people on the right who are critical of how governments handled COVID-19.