Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s past social media posts are coming back to haunt him and leftists are hopping mad about it — for all the wrong reasons.
CBS News on Monday published a report discussing El-Sayed’s deleted tweets about the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the nation prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the atrocity.
In one, from April 2020, El-Sayed compared the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on Sept. 11 to the mounting COVID-19 death toll and argued for a response commensurate with the nation's post-9/11 mobilization. In another, El-Sayed wrote that because more Americans had died from COVID than in the Sept. 11 attacks, he hoped "that means we'll spend the next ten years fighting a war for public health & against poverty ... like we launched a global #WaronTerror after 9/11. We could save lives rather than take them."
"Abdul has always unequivocally condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks," a spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign said in a statement to CBS News. "Mike Rogers' attempts to misrepresent Abdul's beliefs are bad-faith lies meant to mislead Michiganders."
In another deleted post, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, El-Sayed wrote on Sept. 11, 2021: "Today, I mourn the 3K lives, 6K injuries, & infrastructural devastation in NYC, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my faith. Tomorrow, I'll mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country."
El-Sayed's campaign told Politico earlier this summer that he deleted all posts older than July 2023 "to prevent any old posts from being taken out of context." They didn't say when he deleted the posts.
El-Sayed told CBS Detroit that he believes “all of us look back and say 9/11 was an awful thing that happened in this country, and I think all of us also look back and say, think about all the wars that were fought and how much safer do we feel like they made us?”
He argued that Americans should also “think about how do we build an America where we are protecting our servicemen and women from being asked to fight wars we have no business fighting that ultimately end up doing harm to people.”
Leftist politicians and media figures bashed CBS News for daring to bring up El-Sayed’s comments about the terrorist attack.
Democrat Rep. Yassamin Ansari (AZ-3) called the headline “blatantly racist” and “unreal.”
What an insane, blatantly racist headline. Unreal. https://t.co/2RzoPyP1K7
— Yassamin Ansari (@yassaminansari) August 31, 2026
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) lashed out at the network. “You are showing us how racist and bias you are,” she wrote. “Targeting Abdul like this is intentional and coordinated. Disgusting.”
.@CBSNews shame on you. You are showing us how racist and bias you are. Targeting Abdul like this is intentional and coordinated. Disgusting. https://t.co/zh5cImt2Pv
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 31, 2026
Progressive pundit Mehdi Hasan called out the network and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. “Do you think it’s super offensive and disgusting and Islamophobic to do a tweet about the potential first ever Muslim Democratic senator which begins by referencing 9/11?”
Hi @CBS @CBSNews @bariweiss do you think it's super offensive and disgusting and Islamophobic to do a tweet about the potential first ever Muslim Democratic senator which begins by referencing 9/11? https://t.co/vLWH0BWF7D
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 31, 2026
Communist YouTuber Hasan Piker wrote, “this is why the ellison’s bought cbs and put bari weiss in charge.”
what an insane headline. this is why the ellison’s bought cbs and put bari weiss in charge. https://t.co/YUuFK6zlue
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) August 31, 2026
But, as is typical, we can’t take any of these people seriously. They aren’t mad at the idea of bringing up a politician’s past comments. If El-Sayed were a Republican, they’d cheer this type of report.
What angers them is that CBS News would dare to write a critical piece about a Democrat. Leftists simply aren’t used to it. Most of legacy media has been in the tank for the party for decades. The notion that a news outlet would attack their golden boy is too much for them to handle.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
Help us continue to shine a light on the socialist takeover by joining Townhall VIP. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.