Fox News host Jesse Watters was left visibly taken aback during a live broadcast after Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed asked him whether he was circumcised, during a heated exchange about paediatric gender transition surgery. The remark came as Watters pressed El-Sayed, a doctor and former public health official, over whether he supported minors having access to sex-change operations, with El-Sayed arguing that healthcare decisions should remain between a patient, parent and doctor rather than the government. The clash quickly drew condemnation from Republican figures, who accused El-Sayed of equating circumcision with castration and warned it could damage his Senate campaign ahead of November's election.

El-Sayed, 41, is running against Republican nominee Mike Rogers in a closely watched contest. His comparison prompted sharp criticism from White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump ally Mike Davis and Turning Point USA's Andrew Kolvet, all of whom branded the remark inappropriate or politically damaging. The row unfolded against a backdrop of ongoing legal disputes in the US, where gender-affirming surgery for children is banned in 27 states but remains legal in Michigan; the Supreme Court's June 2025 ruling in United States v. Skrmetti upheld such state bans as not violating the Equal Protection Clause.