Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said the government should not restrict sex changes, arguing that “whole a–” doctors like himself should be allowed to make their own determinations for patients’ treatment plans.

The remarks came during El-Sayed’s Friday rally held at Michigan State University, during which the former Detroit Health Department head responded to a student’s question about protecting sex changes. Since launching his campaign, El-Sayed has flaunted that he is a “physician” and, if elected, he would be the first doctor to serve as a Democratic senator in 50 years. However, Fox News Digital previously reported El-Sayed has never held a medical license in Michigan or New York.

“I went to a whole a– medical school, everybody I graduated with also went to whole a– medical school,” El-Sayed said. “And then… they went to whole a– residency. Right? And some of them went to whole a– fellowship. They took whole a– exams to provide whole a– healthcare.”

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“They are the experts that a patient wants to see when they seek care,” El-Sayed continued. “And the decision about what healthcare is necessary ought to be held between a patient — and or their parents if they’re under the age of 18 — and their doctor. That’s it.”

The remarks come as the Trump administration has made major strides in restricting minors’ access to “sex-rejecting” procedures, which include hormone therapy and surgeries.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department announced that Mount Sinai had joined other hospitals, like Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Connecticut Children’s Hospital, to halt sex change procedures for children after reaching an agreement with the Trump administration.

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El-Sayed has made the promise of “Medicare-for-all” — government-run healthcare — as the major selling point of his campaign; he said that even though the government will be covering the bill, it needs to stay out of the doctor’s decisions about a patient’s treatment plan.

“I don’t think the government gets to have a say about what healthcare is provided in what circumstances and why,” El-Sayed said. “And to me, that is the standard on which we decide how we make healthcare decisions.”

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“Not what the government says you can or can’t do, but what a patient and/or their parent, if they’re under 18, and their provider to decide. That’s the most important thing,” El-Sayed continued. “And there’s a lot of disinformation about us, what we’re talking about, when we talk about reproductive rights and when we’re talking about healthcare for the trans folks. But, in the end, the place where the rubber meets the rope is in that clinical room between a patient and a provider, and that to me is the center we should engage on.”

El-Sayed argued that Republicans agree with his belief that treatment decisions should be between a patient and their doctor, pointing to the Right to Try Act, which allows terminally ill patients to try experimental drug treatments that aren’t yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration after they have exhausted all other treatment options.

“Because conservatives fought for a very long time for this legislation called ‘Right to Try’ legislation, which is the idea that the government couldn’t tell you [that] you couldn’t have a certain medication,” El-Sayed said.

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“So they agree that the decision about healthcare ought to be between the person and their provider. That’s it. So let’s use that standard, and keep to that standard, and make sure the government doesn’t have the ability to tell you what you can or cannot do with your own life,” El-Sayed said.

However, the research on the efficacy of treating individuals with gender dysphoria by allowing them to change sexes with “cross-sex” hormones and puberty blockers is limited.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, whose guidelines are used by leading medical associations like the American Academy of Peditatrics, is currently facing a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission stemming from allegations that its guidelines misled parents about the “medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of sex change procedures.

The FTC has accused WPATH of failing to disclose the side effects associated with some procedures, such as patients experiencing incontinence, erectile pain, mood disturbances, pelvic pain and vaginal pain stemming from “cross-sex” hormones.

Meanwhile, countries that have socialized medicine have put restrictions in place for minors seeking sex changes. In England, the National Health Service put a pause on “cross-sex” hormones for 16- and 17-year-olds in March after finding research was “really weak” to support it.

The country already had a ban in place restricting children under 16 years old from taking sex-change hormones.

El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner said the Senate candidate has impeccable medical credentials.

“Dr. El-Sayed earned a medical doctorate from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health from Oxford University,” she said. “That’s two doctorates—he has earned the right to be called “doctor” twice over. He has spent his career improving healthcare for Michiganders through innovative public health programs, including the elimination of millions of dollars in medical debt, increased access to Narcan, and the creation of a state-of-the-art air quality monitoring network.”

The Supreme Court will no longer hear an oral argument for a case centered on bond rights for noncitizens detained for lengthy periods, ruling the case moot after New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned a lawfully present Dominican citizen, who pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.

Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano, who is identified in court documents as “Keisy GM,” in late August, effectively killing the Trump administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court arguing that noncitizens, including those with green card status, do not have a legal right to a bond hearing for a prolonged detention if they have committed crimes that are grounds for mandatory deportation.

Hochul, who is staunchly opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown, issued the pardon for Mariano just as the brief was due.

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Solicitor General John Sauer agreed Friday that Genalo v. Black is now moot, but said the Trump administration will seek an “alternative vehicle” to challenge the Second Circuit’s 2024 ruling that prolonged immigration detention can trigger a constitutional right to a bond hearing.

Sauer said the administration intends to find another case through which the Supreme Court can resolve the issue during its 2026-27 term.

The lawsuit centered on the challenges of plaintiffs Carol Williams Black, a Jamaican national with lawful standing, and Mariano — both convicted criminals detained by ICE.

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Mariano was first arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in 2020 over a 2015 second-degree assault conviction for which he served time, making him eligible for deportation.

He spent nearly two years in ICE detention, but was released in 2022 due to a nationwide injunction that required the release of detainees because of COVID-19 health risks.

Prior to his release, Judge John P. Cronan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Mariano’s habeas corpus request in November 2021.

But in May 2024, the Second Circuit overruled Cronan’s decision, ruling that the government must grant noncitizens a bond hearing once detention becomes “unreasonably long.” Failure to do so, the court ruled, would violate the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case June 15; however, the high court ruled Black’s case moot because he had left the United States and filed a court declaration that he would not be returning to the country.

Black was convicted in New York in 2000 of sexually abusing a minor under the age of 11.

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Hochul’s decision to issue a pardon to Mariano has garnered fierce criticism from legal experts.

“Pretty wild to fully pardon an aggravated felon to (1) stop the felon from getting deported and (2) stop the Supreme Court from ruling on an issue. (Especially as this litigation has been going on for years),” Eric Wessan, Iowa’s solicitor general, posted on X.

He praised Sauer’s decision to fight back on the Second Circuit’s ruling.

“I wonder how many non-American felons Governors like Hochul will choose to fully pardon and free to avoid them facing consequences for their actions,” Wessan added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s office for comment.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., were lambasted Friday for appearing to share a moment of levity at the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan during the solemn reading-of-the-names of victims.

Mamdani was already facing criticism from some 9/11 victims’ families over his attendance when a television feed showing the reading of victims’ names cut from a young man sobbing at the memorial to the mayor and congresswoman appearing to grin and laugh as they spoke, though their conversation was inaudible.

“Disgraceful,” said Steve Guest, a former top staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “AOC and Mamdani look happy.”

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“They always show us who they really are,” another critic on X said.

Others critics were more direct. 

“Why the f— are these two laughing?” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked. 

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However, a top member of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s entourage claimed that the video was taken out of context.

“The videos of [them] laughing are not true. I was standing next to them the whole time,” tweeted Michael Ragusa, reportedly head of Giuliani’s security as of 2025, according to WPIX-11.

“The camera just caught her greeting him hello. Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats.”

The Pittsburgh Republican Committee suggested on X that the sight was one of the reasons 9/11 victims families didn’t want the mayor there, while former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt also sounded off.

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“While normal Americans cry, commie Mamdani and AOC laugh it up at the 9/11 memorial in New York,” Pratt said.

“They hate you. They hate your country. They enjoy your misery. We cannot allow these people to have power.”

A New York City lawmaker added that she was outraged to see Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez acting that way.

“After thousands of families of victims of terror beg Mamdani not to show up, he stands there and laughs while families weep,” said Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, R-Brighton Beach. “This is NYC’s Mayor.”

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Richard Sementa, better known as “Mr. Producer” for Mark Levin’s national radio show, tweeted, “Un-freaking believable.”

Juanita Broaddrick called Mamdani and AOC “two disgusting degenerates” on X.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who continues to criticize democratic socialists and opponents of Israel, called the mayor “Jihad Mamdani” and said he and the congresswoman should not be anywhere near Ground Zero.

“They do not mourn this country, they mock it,” he tweeted. “Have some damn respect.”

“As the names of Americans murdered on September 11th are read aloud at Ground Zero, AOC and Mamdani are laughing and smiling together,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas.

“There is a time and a place for politics. This isn’t it. Ground Zero is sacred ground.”

“September 11 is not a photo op, it is not a networking event,” said Hunt.

Separately, Mamdani was seen at other points standing somberly between New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and New York first gentleman William Hochul Jr.

But critics continued pointing out what one called the “jarring split-screen” of the mayor joking around with Ocasio-Cortez a split-second after the mourner was seen sobbing over the shadow “fountain” at the footprint of the Twin Towers.

“What exactly is funny?” former Trump White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson asked.

Former NYPD cop and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro tweeted what he envisioned the two discussing.

“Zo[hran]: You’re not buying into this ‘never again’ bull— are you? AOC: ‘No, not me,’ Hilarity ensues.”

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Campaign personnel for Amy Acton, Ohio’s former health director and Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, got into a confrontation with a Republican political activist wielding a camera last Saturday at one of Acton’s campaign events in Harrison, Ohio.

When the cameraman approached Acton, asking her why she continued to decline invitations to debate her Republican challenger, Vivek Ramaswamy, her staff quickly rushed in to block him off from Acton.

The video, which shows Acton walking away from the interviewer, adds to criticisms from Ramaswamy’s camp that she hasn’t given a good answer for why she isn’t willing to do a debate as both candidates enter the homestretch of their campaigns.

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“Dr. Amy Acton, why do you refuse to debate your opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy?” the interviewer asked.

“No photos, no videos,” the staff repeated. “I said — no pictures, no interviews.”

At one point in the confrontation, Acton’s staff seemed to have bumped into the cameraman, jolting his camera out of frame and prompting him to ask them to be “careful.”

Acton did not respond to the questions.

Earlier this month, after Ramaswamy accepted a debate invitation from CNN, Acton’s campaign told local media she would not accept.

“Dr. Acton’s focus is on talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family, uses AI to falsely paint her as someone with a substance abuse problem, and shames Dr. Acton for being sexually abused as a child while Vivek stands with predators and abusers,” a campaign spokesperson said in a Sept. 2 statement.

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The response refers to a series of Republican attacks: her role in Ohio’s COVID response, a verbal domestic dispute in 2019 that she had while intoxicated, and AI-generated campaign ads that replaced her car’s license plate with a “drunk mom” tag. It also nods to Ramaswamy’s quiet posture toward releasing the Epstein files at the outset of his gubernatorial campaign.

In his response, Ramaswamy ignored Acton’s needling.

He seized on her decision, calling into question her qualifications to lead the state as its top executive while, at the same time, refusing to press her case on a debate stage.

“It’s too bad for Ohio voters that Acton won’t take voter questions, won’t debate, quit after failing as Ohio’s health director, and has some serious issues now surfaced in multiple police reports,” Ramaswamy said in a post to social media.

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Acton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital about her interaction with the interviewer last Saturday.

Having cleared the Ohio Democratic primary, Acton will face off against Ramaswamy in the state’s general election on Nov. 3.