Rogers says he ‘never agreed’ to El-Sayed debate: It would’ve been ‘2-on-1’

Rep. Mike Rogers (R) said he “never agreed” to Tuesday’s televised debate with his Michigan Senate opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed — who spoke for an hour next to an empty podium on a Fox 2 Detroit hours after the Republican announced he wouldn’t attend.

Rogers reiterated to CBS News Detroit’s Heath Kalb that the moderator’s alleged “favoritism” led him to skip the event, saying it would’ve been a “two-on-one fight” as opposed to a debate.

“Well, first of all, it’s not a debate. It’s a town hall. We never agreed to it. And the one thing that’s been consistent is [Fox 2 Detroit anchor] Roop Raj has picked his candidate. We saw it in the debate between Abdul and Haley Stevens,” the candidate said, referring to El-Sayed’s opponent in Michigan’s Democratic primary.

He added, “You have someone who’s already picked their candidate, you can’t have a 2-on-1 event in a TV studio. I’ve really never quite seen anything like this in the media. I think it’s highly unprofessional.”

When asked about critics suggesting Rogers was unwilling to engage in a discussion with El-Sayed, the GOP candidate pointed out that the pair have two televised debates scheduled for October.

The representative also swiped at Raj for being “an impartial person,” saying the journalist should not have moderated the event “where he’s this invested in a particular candidate.”

“But you can’t have a media outlet set a date and say, ‘This is a debate and you must be here or we’re going to put an open podium on here.’ That’s highly unprofessional,” Rogers told Kalb.

Raj has defended himself against Rogers’ claims of favoritism, saying on Fox 2’s “Good Day Detroit” that the campaign did not want to do the debate “for whatever reason.” The anchor admitted he once called El-Sayed “brilliant” because of his background as a Rhodes Scholar before saying that he looks at both candidates as “tremendous political athletes.”

He wrote in an op-ed for The Detroit Free Press before the debate imploring Rogers to take part.

“They cited clips from various shows I’ve hosted to assert bias,” he wrote. “Our nightly political show has had moments of praise and criticism for Rogers and El Sayed. This is not personal. I have interviewed Rogers multiple times on TV, and on stage at a forum when he ran against now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin. There was no issue then. We have no issue now.”

After the debate, El-Sayed quipped that “ the elephant was not in the room ” of the debate, referring to Rogers’ absence.

“It’s wild to me that this guy is more interested in going to speak for what? Six minutes and 48 seconds in Dallas than he is to have 60 minutes with Michiganders here in Detroit,” El-Sayed said, referring to Rogers’s remarks at last week’s Republican National Committee midterm convention. “But it tells you who he is, he’s a coward.”

The Hill’s polling partner Decision Desk HQ gives El-Sayed a 66 percent chance of winning the race to succeed outgoing Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) as of Wednesday night.