CBS Correspondent Deletes Post Mocking El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood Answer After Backlash From the Left
Jan Crawford said her tweet violated CBS News standards and apologized. Democratic strategists called for her firing; a media watchdog said they 'need to grow up.'
A veteran network reporter took down a social media post within a day of publishing it, and Fox News says the reason was pressure from Democrats.
At a Saturday town hall, a voter named Tommy asked Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, after reports about alleged family connections. El-Sayed answered "Sure. Yeah, absolutely," then asked why the question was being put to him and accused the voter of assuming "dual loyalties" because of his Muslim background. He later posted the clip himself.
CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford, who covers the Supreme Court, replied on X: "I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abdul El-Sayed's nanosecond 'yeah absolutely' response. His subsequent uninterrupted three-minute diatribe proving your exact point is the kind of spectacular self own most ppl only dream about triggering. Congrats."
By Sunday she had deleted it, writing that it "was a violation of CBS News standards. I apologize." A CBS spokesperson pointed to her statement and declined to comment further.
The reaction. Democratic consultant Karen Finney accused her of helping "prop up a paid GOP operative." Strategist Keith Edwards wrote that she "SHOULD be fired." Zeteo CEO Mehdi Hasan tied the episode to CBS's new ownership and to Bari Weiss, the network's news chief. Curtis Houck of the watchdog NewsBusters told Fox the critics "need to grow up" and called it a double standard, since reporters at other outlets post "incendiary hot takes" without consequence. Those are opinions from each side, not findings.
The campaign. El-Sayed's campaign has called the Brotherhood allegations "racist and untrue." Fox reports he confirmed to its correspondent Mike Tobin that his sister-in-law was involved in a 2016 federal terrorist watchlist lawsuit, saying "she did nothing wrong... and sued and got off." Fox said it asked his campaign for comment on the Crawford episode and the report does not include a reply.