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← All fact checksAfternoon run · November 4, 2026 · #6 by reach
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Did Abdul El-Sayed tell a Sky News reporter he wants "zero" votes in the UK?

Did Abdul El-Sayed grab a Sky News reporter while telling him Sky News is not viewed in the United States, and is that true?

True

The exchange happened exactly as shown — but El-Sayed's "five people watch it" line is false.

True. On Election Day, 3 November 2026, in Detroit, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told Sky News US correspondent James Matthews he wanted "zero" votes in the UK and would not answer his questions, placing his hands on the reporter's shoulders. The Sky News video is real. But El-Sayed's on-camera claim that Sky News is not watched in the US is false.

+6Sources ↓Original post ↗
Genuine
The post as it circulated, labelled by our media check.Video · 1:26 · 720×1280

Claims

✓ 3 true · ✕ 1 false

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed confronted Sky News correspondent James Matthews and told him he would not answer his questions because he wants "zero" votes in the UK.12347

“Michigan's Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed confronted @jamesmatthewsky, telling him he wouldn't answer his questions as he wants "zero" votes in the UK.”

✓ TrueCentral claimHigh confidence

The video shows this exchange word for word, and it is not the only record. Reporters at several outlets that do not share Sky News's owner wrote the same story on the same day, quoting the same line: "You know how many votes I want to get in the U.K.? Zero." The Hill, the Daily Mail, HuffPost UK, the Daily Express, the New York Post and The Independent all describe El-Sayed putting his hands on Matthews' shoulders and refusing to answer questions. That matters because these outlets did not simply repost Sky's clip; they reported the event independently from their own vantage points. The decisive evidence is the combination: the unaltered Sky News footage plus same-day reporting across the political spectrum. A reader should weigh the fact that the clip is a broadcaster's own material, posted by the broadcaster, with its watermark and named correspondent visible. If the caption had overstated the exchange, Sky's rivals would have had every incentive to say so. None did.

"Sky News is not viewed in the United States of America. It's only viewed in the UK. Like five people watch it."58

✕ FalseModerate confidence

El-Sayed's claim that Sky News has essentially no US audience does not hold up. Sky News International has been carried on US streaming platforms, including Apple TV, since 2013, and its website and YouTube channel are accessible worldwide. The network also keeps a US correspondent — the very reporter El-Sayed was speaking to. None of that means Sky News has a large American cable audience; it does not claim one. But "not viewed in the United States" and "five people watch it" are hyperbole, not fact, and the second half is not something anyone could measure from a Detroit pavement. We rate this false with moderate confidence rather than high because the claim is about audience size, and audience size is hard to pin down precisely. The core point — that Sky News is available to and watched by US audiences — is documented.

Still open: Exact US audience figures for Sky News are not public in the input, so we cannot say how many Americans watch it — only that the claim of essentially none is wrong.

Matthews is a "journalist in the UK" whose questions are irrelevant outside Britain.46

“"You're a journalist in the UK."”

~ MisleadingHigh confidence

Matthews is Sky News's US correspondent, and he said so on camera: "I'm based in the United States." He was covering the midterms from Detroit, not calling in from London. El-Sayed's framing — that Matthews is a foreign reporter with no stake in American politics — misrepresents his role. The half-truth underneath is that Matthews's employer is a British broadcaster, which is true and is why El-Sayed's "zero votes in the UK" line lands. But a correspondent based in the US covering a US election is not a UK-only journalist, and the questions he was asking were about the US Senate race. The exchange itself shows Matthews making that point directly. This is misleading rather than false because the employer's nationality is accurate; the distortion is in presenting that as the whole story.

El-Sayed is "never running for office in the UK."

“"I am never running for office in the UK."”

✓ TrueHigh confidence

This is a statement about El-Sayed's own intentions, and nothing in the record contradicts it. He is a US candidate seeking a US Senate seat in Michigan. There is no indication he has any British candidacy or British political base. The line is also the pivot of the whole exchange: El-Sayed uses it to argue that a British reporter's questions are irrelevant to him. That argument can be debated, but the factual statement inside it is straightforwardly true. We rate it high confidence because it is a self-description consistent with everything else in the record, not a contested factual claim about the world.

If El-Sayed gets to Capitol Hill he wants to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and his responsibilities as a senator would extend far beyond US borders.9

“"Abdul El-Sayed, if he gets to Capitol Hill, he wants to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. His responsibilities as a senator will extend far beyond the borders of the United States."”

✓ Likely trueModerate confidence

The first half — that El-Sayed wants a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — is supported by reporting that cites a former El-Sayed staffer. The Senate committee is the counterpart of what Matthews called "foreign affairs." The second half is analysis rather than a discrete fact: a senator's work does reach beyond US borders, and the committee assignment would in any case depend on Democratic leadership decisions. That mix is why we rate this likely true rather than true. The sourcing is a single former staffer quoted in partisan-leaning outlets, so it is one thread, not several independent ones. A reader should treat the committee ambition as reported but not confirmed by El-Sayed himself, and the broader point about a senator's reach as opinion that is hard to dispute.

Still open: El-Sayed has not confirmed the committee ambition on the record in the input, and committee assignments depend on Senate leadership.

What was posted

X

Sky News posted its own broadcast footage on X: a roughly 85-second exchange between its US correspondent James Matthews and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed outside a Detroit polling place on Election Day. The caption says El-Sayed refused to answer Matthews' questions because he wants "zero" votes in the UK and invites viewers to watch live coverage of the US midterms. It presents the clip as a real, newsworthy confrontation.

“Michigan's Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed confronted @jamesmatthewsky, telling him he wouldn't answer his questions as he wants "zero" votes in the UK. Watch the heated exchange between the two. Watch our live coverage of the US midterms➡️”

Posted by Sky News on X on 3 November 2026, Election Day, compiling footage shot by its own correspondent. The clip drew more than 6.5 million views on X, per Deadline.

Who posted it

X
@skynews

9.1M followers · Account 19.3 years old

View the account on X ↗

Account check

Looks like a genuine account92%
Likelihood of automation10%

Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.

What stood out

  • @SkyNews is the long-standing official X account of Sky News (UK), on X since July 2007 — about 19 years old at the current date.
  • Independent trackers put it at roughly 9.1M followers with ~770K lifetime posts and 2,500+ posts in the last 30 days (about 84–110 per day, consistent with a 24-hour newsroom).
  • Live checks of the profile in early November 2026 show current, on-brand breaking-news posts (US midterms, FIFA, UK politics) linking to news.sky.com — the account is active and behaving as the real outlet.
  • Sky News is rated high-factuality / centre by Ad Fontes Media and Media Fact Check, with no pattern of failed fact-checks; one February 2026 post repeating a claim about Afghan Air Force strikes was deleted after criticism, an ordinary correction rather than systematic misreporting.
  • Supplied metadata is blank and shows isplatformverified=false, and one tracker (twtData) logged the account as 'unavailable' from 11 July 2026 — likely scraper/API artifacts, since other trackers and live pages show continuous activity and a historical X Business verification badge.
  • Residual risk is mainly impersonation of the brand elsewhere (fake 'Sky News' accounts and look-alike domains have appeared before), not the authenticity of this handle.
Signals (8)+
Account created
July 2007
Posting cadence
~84-110 posts/day, active every day
Follower ratio
~81,000:1 (9.1M followers / ~112 following)
Notable news coverage
Major UK broadcaster (Sky Group/Comcast); routinely cited by Reuters, AFP, BBC and other outlets
Fact check history
Ad Fontes Media and Media Fact Check rate high factuality; one deleted erroneous X post in Feb 2026 (Afghan Air Force strike claim), reported mainly by Pakistani state-affiliated media
Affiliation
Sky News, Sky Group (Comcast), London UK; official site news.sky.com
Anomalies
Blank bio/follower/created fields in supplied record; twtData 'account unavailable' flag from 11 Jul 2026 contradicted by live activity in Oct-Nov 2026
External confirmation
Media.info and X page list @SkyNews as the official account; @SkyNewsBreak is the separate breaking-news desk

Account checked November 4, 2026, 14:59 UTC

The media

Video
GenuinePresented as real footage· The claim depends on it

✓ What is genuine

The video is real Sky News footage of a real exchange between its US correspondent and a Senate candidate on Election Day. Nothing in it appears synthesised or altered.

The tells

  • ●●● Strong signal The footage is Sky News's own broadcast material, carrying its watermark and featuring its named US correspondent.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal Keyframes stay consistent — same clothing, wristbands and microphone — with a plausible Detroit polling-place setting at dusk.our visual review
  • ●●● Strong signal Multiple outlets that do not share Sky's owner quoted the same words the same day.The Hill, Daily Mail, HuffPost UK and others

Synthetic-media detector

Detector not consulted

Sources settled the claim on their own; the detector was not needed.

How we checked the media

  • Reviewed the video frames and audio for internal consistency: same clothing, wristbands and microphone across the exchange, coherent crowd and a "City of Detroit" sign in the background.
  • Checked that the footage carries Sky News branding and features its own named correspondent, James Matthews, in a live two-shot camera setup typical of a TV crew.
  • Compared the words spoken in the clip with same-day written coverage from multiple independent outlets.

Sources

9 sources reviewed

Further reading

  • 1The Hill The Hill's same-day report quotes the "Zero" line and confirms the election result.
  • 8Wikiwand (Sky News history) Records Sky News International's availability on US streaming platforms since 2013.
  • 9Fox News The reporting behind the Foreign Relations Committee claim, with its single-staffer sourcing.

The full story

The clip is genuine, and that is the first thing to understand about it. Sky News's US correspondent James Matthews approached Abdul El-Sayed outside a Detroit polling place on Election Day, 3 November 2026, and asked whether he was registered to vote in Michigan. El-Sayed turned the question back on him: was Matthews registered? Why should he care what a British reporter thought? The exchange escalated until El-Sayed said, "You know how many votes I want to get in the UK? Zero," and put both hands on Matthews' shoulders asking him to stop following him.

That much is recorded and independently reported. What makes the story more interesting is what El-Sayed said about Sky News itself. He claimed the network is "not viewed in the United States" and that "five people watch it." That is not true. Sky News International has been carried on US streaming platforms including Apple TV since 2013, and its website and YouTube channel are globally accessible. The network keeps a US correspondent precisely because American events matter to its international audience.

The kernel of truth is that Sky News is a British broadcaster with a primarily British audience, and El-Sayed is right that he will never stand for office in the UK. The exaggeration is in pretending that makes the questions irrelevant. Matthews told him on camera that he is based in the United States, and his questions were about the US Senate race. El-Sayed went on to win the seat against Republican Mike Rogers, and the exchange drew criticism from British journalists including Piers Morgan and Sky's Alex Crawford.

Kernel of truth

Sky News is a British broadcaster, and El-Sayed is genuinely not running for office in the UK — but he overstated how little the network reaches US audiences.

Timeline

  1. November 3, 2026

    On US midterm Election Day, Abdul El-Sayed confronts Sky News US correspondent James Matthews outside a Detroit polling place and tells him he wants "zero" votes in the UK. 1The Hill

  2. November 3, 2026

    Sky News posts its footage of the exchange on X; it draws more than 6.5 million views. 2Deadline

  3. November 3, 2026

    The Hill, the Daily Mail, HuffPost UK, the Daily Express, the New York Post and The Independent publish same-day coverage quoting the same remarks. 6The Independent

  4. November 3, 2026

    El-Sayed defeats Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race. 1The Hill

How it was framed

Accurate

The post is Sky News's own authentic footage of a real exchange, and its caption accurately describes what was said. The headline claim is true. The inaccurate statements are inside the clip, made by El-Sayed, and we assess them separately in the claims section.

  • “Visual proof”. Sky News posts its own broadcast footage, with watermark and named correspondent, so viewers can see the exchange directly.
  • Missing context. El-Sayed's claim that Sky News is "not viewed in the United States" omits that the network is carried on US streaming platforms and keeps a US correspondent.
  • Us vs. them. El-Sayed frames the exchange as a British reporter having no standing in a US election: "What country are you in?"
  • Emotional language. El-Sayed says "I do not care what you think or the questions you ask" and "Like five people watch it."

Posted by Sky News on X on Election Day, 3 November 2026, from footage shot by its own US correspondent. The clip drew more than 6.5 million views, per Deadline, and was widely covered by other outlets the same day.

Bias

NoneSlightModerateStrong

Leans media-defensive. Sky News is publishing footage of its own correspondent being confronted, and the closing commentary from Matthews frames the story around the argument that US elections matter internationally and that international journalists deserve answers. The caption itself sticks to what was said, so the slant is mild and self-interested rather than partisan.

Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.

How we checked

58 s
  1. 1

    Searched for the confrontation and for the exact phrase "zero votes" in connection with El-Sayed and the Michigan Senate race.

  2. 2

    Reviewed the Sky News video frames and audio for internal consistency, branding and correspondent identity.

  3. 3

    Compared the spoken words with same-day written coverage from multiple independent outlets.

  4. 4

    Searched for reporting on El-Sayed's committee ambitions and on Sky News's availability to US audiences.

✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked

Why 88% confidence

High

We rate the headline claim high confidence because the video is a broadcaster's own footage and the same words are quoted in same-day coverage from outlets across the political spectrum. The "five people watch it" claim is rated moderate because audience-size claims are hard to measure precisely, though the documented availability of Sky News in the US settles the core question.

Limits. We did not run a media-authenticity detector; our assessment of the video rests on visual review and the independent reporting. We could not obtain exact US audience figures for Sky News. The committee-ambition claim rests on a single former staffer quoted in partisan-leaning outlets.

What we don’t know

  • Exact US audience figures for Sky News, so we can say El-Sayed's "five people" line is wrong but not how many Americans actually watch.
  • Whether El-Sayed has confirmed his committee ambitions himself; the reporting relies on a former staffer.
  • Whether Sky News edited the clip down from a longer exchange; the posted version is about 85 seconds and we have not seen the raw footage.

Spot it yourself

Spot the fake

Looks suspicious, isn’t proof

  • The clip comes from a broadcaster with a stake in the story — Sky News is promoting its own correspondent's work. That is a reason to check, not evidence the footage is fake.
  • The exchange is heated and El-Sayed's tone is confrontational. Tone can make a real clip feel staged, but it proves nothing about authenticity.
  • The caption is written by the same outlet that shot the video, so it could have slanted the description. Here it did not, but the possibility is worth noting.

The actual evidence

  • The footage is Sky News's own broadcast material, with its watermark and its named US correspondent visible, in a live two-shot camera setup typical of a TV crew.
  • Same-day coverage from The Hill, the Daily Mail, HuffPost UK, the Daily Express, the New York Post and The Independent quotes the same words, including "Zero."
  • Keyframes stay consistent — same clothing, wristbands and microphone — and the background is a plausible Detroit polling place at dusk.
  • Sky News International has been carried on US streaming platforms including Apple TV since 2013, which undermines El-Sayed's "not viewed in the United States" line.
  1. 1

    Ask who else would be reporting this if it were real.

    Search the candidate's name plus the reporter's name plus the date. If the exchange happened, outlets across the political spectrum will have written it up the same day. If only one clip exists, be cautious.

  2. 2

    Check whether the outlet posting the clip is also the outlet that shot it.

    Look for the broadcaster's watermark and a named correspondent. A broadcaster posting its own footage is normal and is not a sign of fakery — but it does mean you should look for independent confirmation.

  3. 3

    Read the transcript against the caption.

    Play the clip and check whether the caption describes what was actually said. Here the caption matches the words spoken.

  4. 4

    Separate the authenticity of the clip from the accuracy of what people say in it.

    A real video can contain false statements. When a speaker makes a factual claim on camera — like "Sky News is not viewed in the United States" — check that claim separately from whether the video is real.

Takeaway

A clip can be completely real and still contain a false claim made by the person in it. Authenticity of the footage and accuracy of the statements are two separate questions — ask both.

Questions people ask

Did Abdul El-Sayed really tell a Sky News reporter he wants zero votes in the UK?+

Yes. On Election Day, 3 November 2026, in Detroit, El-Sayed told Sky News US correspondent James Matthews, "You know how many votes I want to get in the UK? Zero," and said he would not answer his questions. Sky News posted its own footage, and multiple outlets quoted the same words the same day.

Is the Sky News video of El-Sayed real or AI-generated?+

It is real. The footage carries Sky News branding and features its named US correspondent in a live two-shot camera setup. Frames stay consistent across the exchange. Several outlets that do not share Sky's owner reported the same words the same day, which would be impossible if the clip were fabricated.

Is Sky News really not watched in the United States?+

That claim is false. Sky News International has been carried on US streaming platforms including Apple TV since 2013, and its website and YouTube channel are globally accessible. The network also keeps a US correspondent. El-Sayed's "five people watch it" line is hyperbole, not a measured figure.

Why does the exchange mention the Foreign Affairs Committee?+

Matthews argued that a senator's responsibilities extend beyond US borders, saying El-Sayed wants a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Reporting citing a former El-Sayed staffer says he is angling for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Committee assignments would depend on Democratic leadership.

What is the difference between a real video and a true statement?+

A video can be completely genuine and still contain a false claim made by the person in it. Here the footage and the caption are accurate, but El-Sayed's statement that Sky News is not viewed in the US is false. Always check the factual claims inside a clip separately from whether the clip itself is real.

Go deeper

US correspondent
A journalist based in the United States who reports on American events for an outlet headquartered elsewhere.
Watermark
A logo or text overlaid on broadcast footage to show which outlet produced it.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Senate committee that oversees US foreign policy, often called "foreign affairs" in general discussion.
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration not meant to be taken literally, such as saying "five people watch it."
Independent corroboration
Confirmation of an event by sources that did not get their information from each other.

People also search for

Abdul El-Sayed Sky News confrontationEl-Sayed zero votes UK James Matthews"You know how many votes I want to get in the UK? Zero"Abdul El-Sayed grabs reporter shoulders DetroitSky News five people watch it El-Sayed
For educators+
Authenticity versus accuracy: a real video can contain false statements.Independent corroboration: same-day reporting across the political spectrum as evidence an event happened.Hyperbole and measurable claims: distinguishing "five people watch it" from a checkable audience figure.Framing: how a speaker can make a true statement ("I'm not running in the UK") do misleading work.
  • El-Sayed's statement that he will never run for office in the UK is true. How can a true statement still mislead in context?
  • Sky News posted its own footage. Does that make the clip more trustworthy or less? What would you look for to decide?
  • If a public figure makes a false claim on camera, should a fact-check of the video focus on the video or on the claim? Why?

About this check

Platform
X
Posted by
@skynews
Posted
November 3, 2026
Age when checked
Under 24 hours old when checked
Where it spread
United States, United Kingdom
Audience
US audience
Language
EN
Status
● Post is live
Verified
November 4, 2026, 15:01 UTC
Published
November 4, 2026, 15:01 UTC

Reach. 18.2K likes, 3.2K replies on X (syndication, 4 Nov); HuffPost UK, GB News, Joe coverage 4 Nov

This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.

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