CNN Exposes Flip-Flop — Denials Crumble

Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed is attacking CNN for “fixating” on his 2020 calls to “defund the police,” even as resurfaced interviews and deleted tweets show he used the slogan and backed shifting money away from law enforcement toward social programs.

Story Snapshot

CNN KFile found El-Sayed repeatedly said “we do need to defund the police” and praised the movement in 2020.
El-Sayed now claims he “never, never” called for defunding and says CNN is twisting his words for ratings.
Old posts and interviews show he wanted less money for police and more for mental health, housing, and anti-poverty programs.
Republican Mike Rogers says talk of defunding police proves El-Sayed is a far-left, pro-criminal candidate.

CNN report revives El-Sayed’s 2020 ‘defund the police’ record

Michigan Democratic Senate front-runner Abdul El-Sayed is once again under fire over his past support for the “defund the police” movement after CNN’s KFile dug into his 2020 media appearances. In a detailed fact-check, CNN reported that El-Sayed has recently told voters he “never, never called for defunding” the police, even claiming he deleted old tweets because they were taken out of context and turned into “clickbait in DC.” However, the network found radio interviews and social media posts where El-Sayed used the slogan directly and embraced its core ideas.

During one June 2020 appearance on Detroit Public Radio, El-Sayed said, “We do need to defund the police,” then defined the phrase as “disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets and investing more in the means of educating and empowering and engaging communities.” He argued that major cities spend “way too much” on policing poverty and “way too little” on schools, health departments, recreation, and housing, language that closely tracks defund-the-police talking points promoted by national activists at the time. CNN reported that this was not a one-off comment but part of a broader pattern in which El-Sayed backed shifting resources away from traditional law enforcement toward social services.

Resurfaced posts and videos undercut current denials

CNN’s review found that El-Sayed later tried to rebrand his stance as “re-funding” community services while still praising the defund movement’s goals, a shift he presented as a matter of messaging rather than policy change. In the 2020 radio interview, he told listeners he wanted a “refund” on taxpayer dollars used on “war materiel” for local police and argued that instead of “sending a guy with a gun, we actually send a trained mental health professional” to certain calls. CNN also identified thousands of deleted tweets, including a June 2020 post saying “Most major U.S. cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments… Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about,” which directly tied his views to the movement’s hashtag.

Video highlighted by Fox News and other outlets shows El-Sayed in the same period talking through defund-the-police ideas while insisting he was more focused on “explaining” policy than hiding “behind a hashtag.” Yet in that WDET interview, after first avoiding the slogan, he clearly embraced it once pressed, repeating that “defunding the police is disinvesting” in enforcement and reinvesting in public services. These clips now contrast sharply with his 2026 claims that he never called for defunding, giving conservatives and moderate voters cause to question his honesty as well as his judgment on crime and public safety.

El-Sayed fires back at CNN, says network is ‘fixating’ on old comments

After CNN’s fact-check aired and a short clip with reporter Manu Raju circulated online, El-Sayed responded by accusing the network of choosing to “fixate” on defund-the-police questions instead of his economic platform and health care agenda. He argued that his focus has always been on public safety and community well-being, saying he supports investing in law enforcement recruitment, retention, and retirement while also backing community-based violence intervention and behavioral health teams. His campaign insists he never wanted to “strip tax dollars” from police departments and says CNN is oversimplifying nuanced positions for a ratings-friendly clash.

Despite that pushback, CNN’s reporting shows a clear shift between El-Sayed’s tone in 2020 and his language today, a pattern common among Democratic candidates who once embraced the slogan and now distance themselves from it because voters associate it with rising crime and hostility toward police. Political research has found many cities that promised to “defund” did not follow through, but the rhetoric still hurt Democrats nationally and gave Republicans a powerful contrast on law and order. El-Sayed’s attempt to reframe his record fits this broader trend, and CNN’s story underscores how difficult it is for candidates to outrun clear quotes and old posts once they are back in the spotlight.

Republicans seize on the controversy as proof of far-left priorities

Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and other conservatives are using the resurfaced clips to warn that El-Sayed would put ideology over safety and side with activists who view police as the problem. Rogers told Newsmax that talk of defunding police “drives common-sense people into the arms of our campaign,” arguing that most voters do not want lectures about “reimagining” policing when they worry about crime in their neighborhoods. He links El-Sayed’s past defund statements to a broader far-left agenda on spending, global activism, and weak borders that many conservatives see as a direct threat to community security and constitutional order.

National analysis of the defund debate explains why this line of attack resonates: the slogan has always mixed two ideas—full police abolition and simple budget reallocation to social programs—which makes it easy for opponents to equate any support for “defund” with hostility to basic law enforcement. While some scholars and activists claim defunding means redirecting funds, not eliminating police, polling and election results show the phrase itself damaged Democrats, forcing leaders like President Biden to say clearly that they do not support it. For many Michigan voters, especially older and more conservative citizens, El-Sayed’s 2020 words are plain enough, and his later denials sound like the kind of word games they have heard for years from politicians who only admit their real positions after the fact.