A Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan who this week mocked President Donald Trump for revoking press credentials from certain outlets once signed a declaration urging Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to “purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.”
Abdul El-Sayed, a public health bureaucrat and failed gubernatorial candidate now running for Senate in the critical swing state, put his name to an Arabic-language statement published in 2012 on Al-Ahram Gate, an Egyptian news portal, according to a Washington Free Beacon report. The statement was signed by 46 “leaders of the Egyptian community” living in the United States.
“We, leaders of the Egyptian community, support the revolutionary decisions taken by the president, and we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible,” the letter stated. It came after Islamist Mohamed Morsi, then Egypt’s president, seized sweeping powers to quell growing unrest.
The Muslim Brotherhood delivered on that demand. Morsi and his allies launched a brutal crackdown on critics, harassing and suppressing journalists. Some faced trials. Others were attacked in streets. Some were targeted for “insulting Islam.”
“This is a troubling backward step that Egypt’s newly elected President Mohamed Morsi should not be taking,” Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an August 2012 report. “We urge President Morsi to reverse this course immediately and demonstrate his commitment to press freedom.”
The Trump administration has since designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
El-Sayed’s past advocacy for press suppression stands in stark contrast to his rhetoric this week. During a campaign stop with Kamala Harris, El-Sayed took shots at Trump’s decision to revoke White House passes from MS Now, CNN, and Politico.
“May I just say, it’s nice to see MSNow and CNN covering the news,” El-Sayed told reporters. “That’s what you do, it’s great.”
“You are welcome here anytime to cover news. I’m grateful that you do that. I mean, there are certain people who occupy certain offices that are too cowardly to take your questions,” he added.
El-Sayed, born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrants, is now seeking to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.
