El-Sayed tells Sky News reporter he wants ‘zero’ votes in UK

Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D) got into a heated exchange with a British reporter on Election Day, questioning why he should answer questions from a journalist who was not registered to vote in Michigan.

El-Sayed, who defeated Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers on Tuesday to become the first Muslim American elected to the U.S. Senate, was approached by Sky News U.S. correspondent James Matthews, who sought to question the Democrat about the race.

“Are you registered to vote in the state of Michigan?” El-Sayed asked Matthews .

When Matthews said he was not, El-Sayed shot back, “Then why would I care to have a conversation with you?”

Matthews explained he was a journalist covering an election whose outcome “matters to the world,” but El-Sayed dismissed the argument.

“You know how many votes I want to get in the U.K.? Zero,” El-Sayed said. “I am never running for office in the U.K. … so I actually do not care what you think or the questions you ask.”

The exchange grew more tense as El-Sayed clapped his hands for emphasis and placed both hands on Matthews’s shoulders, and asked him to stop “chasing” him around.

“I am not chasing you around, I am asking you questions,” Matthews replied.

Video of the confrontation circulated on social media, drawing millions of views as well as criticism from several prominent British journalists.

British broadcaster Piers Morgan called El-Sayed’s behavior “pathetic” and “very patronising,” writing on the social platform X that the incoming senator “should allow more respect to the UK and one of our best journalists.”

Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford defended Matthews, arguing that the outcome of American elections has implications well beyond the country’s borders.

“Bravo to our colleague @jamesmatthewsky for always asking the pertinent question and putting into context just why what happens in Michigan – and America – doesn’t stay in Michigan,” Crawford wrote on X . “The election most certainly matters elsewhere – and non-voters have a significance of their own.”