Tlaib-backed Senate candidate faces backlash after deleting anti-cop social media posts

A Michigan Senate candidate endorsed by the “Squad” representative. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and other far-left politicians quietly deleted old social media posts he made online supporting the “defund the police” movement between 2020 and 2021.

This anti-law enforcement rhetoric became a flashpoint for Democrats during the summer of 2020 and during the Biden years. Anti-police rhetoric has also been a major issue in New York City’s mayoral race, as Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced immense backlash for his past anti-police rhetoric, forcing the candidate to go on Fox News at one point to apologize for something he once said.

“Most major American cities spend FAR TOO MUCH on policing to fight poverty and FAR TOO LITTLE on public schools, health services, recreational services and housing to eliminate poverty,” El-Sayed wrote in a statement. Article from June 2020 on X, then on Twitter, just a few weeks after the death of George Floyd. “Fixing this problem is what the #Defund movement is all about.”

“The police have become a standing army that we deploy against our own people,” El-Sayed said in a separate article on social media around the same time.

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Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan U.S. Senate candidate backed by Bernie Sanders, also campaigned with other radical far-left politicians, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a member of “Squad.” (\Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

El-Sayed’s previous social media posts, which first reported by CNNinclude a dozen messages that support the “defund the police” movement.

“When we make the choice to invest in policing in a majority Black community, rather than investing in public schools, that choice is influenced by systemic racism,” El-Sayed said in an interview for Michigan Online that was posted to YouTube around the same time as his now-deleted social media posts. “When we talk about the issue of defunding the police,” he continued, “it’s about asking how can we scale the size of government and move it away from racist ideologies that have led us to invest in war hardware for policing rather than in children’s public health.”

El-Sayed, former executive director of the Detroit Health Department, is running in a crowded primary to win Michigan’s Senate seat against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and others. On the Republican side, former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is considered the front-runner after narrowly losing his bid for the seat in 2024.

“I am proud to support Abdul El-Sayed to be our next senator,” Tlaib said earlier this month during a city hall tour featuring El-Sayed. “As a champion of health equity and an advocate for Medicare for All, Abdul leads a grassroots vision of change centered on inclusion and dignity for Michigan families. He has long been a fighter – we were arrested together in 2018 while protesting for a $15 minimum wage – and he is now fighting to eliminate money from politics, tackle our affordability crisis, and build a stronger, healthier Michigan.”

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Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a coronavirus public health roundtable with Senator Bernie Sanders in 2020. (Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In response to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on CNN’s investigation, an El-Sayed campaign spokesperson shared a statement about how the former health director worked to support law enforcement. The release also touted El-Sayed’s support from members of the law enforcement community.

“In his third week as Wayne County Health Officer, Dr. El-Sayed declared a public health emergency at the juvenile detention center, working alongside law enforcement to completely rebuild it, increasing officer salaries by 35%, and funding a safer and more humane system,” the statement said. “He learned and grew throughout the process and gained support from a sitting sheriff, a former sheriff and a Detroit police commissioner.”

The campaign statement also criticized President Donald Trump’s “militarization” of agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and argued that “rather than defund the police,” El-Sayed “challenges” the government to reconsider how it allocates its money.

“Rather than defunding the police, Dr. El-Sayed questions the government’s choices of refusing to fund food, health care, and social services while militarizing agencies like ICE, in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s presidency, because true security comes from investing in people, not tanks and tear gas,” the campaign statement concluded.

Besides Tlaib, self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and far-left Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison have endorsed her campaign.

El-Sayed, who has been compared to Mamdani, embraced the comparison between himself and New York’s mayor-elect, a self-described socialist with ties to the broader socialist movement. “Like Zohran, I am leading a citizen campaign because I know we deserve better,” El-Sayed would have said in a campaign ad that now appears to have been deleted, according to the Washington Examiner.

Representative Rashida Tlaib during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, March 6, 2024. (Getty)

But their policies are not the only ones that are similar; so are their opinions about the police.

Before Mamdani’s election victory last week, he was forced to go on Fox News and apologize for his previous anti-police comments calling the New York Police Department (NYPD) “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety.” Mamdani’s past comments, which also included his support for the “defund the police” movement, came around the same time as El-Sayed’s social media posts that followed the death of George Floyd.

Mamdani told Fox News Digital at the time that he apologized to rank-and-file NYPD officers behind closed doors and when asked if he would issue a broad public apology, Mamdani responded, “Absolutely.”

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“I apologize because I seek to work with these officers, and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, put their lives on the line every day,” Mamdani added.

Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed embraced the comparisons, likening him to New York City mayor-elect and self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani. (Bill Pugliano and Alexi J. Rosenfeld via Getty Images)

But despite the apology, Mamdani’s negative comments about police may have already caused damage. In October, the same month as his apology on Fox News and just weeks before Mamdani’s widely expected victory, the New York Police Department reportedly saw a 35 percent increase in the number of officers of all ranks leaving the department, according to the New York Post’s analysis of police pension fund data.

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“Morale is low because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place,” said Scott Munro, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.

Other police departments across the country also appear to be taking advantage of the exodus, including one in Houston, Texas, offering “disgusted” NYPD officers the chance to come work for them.

“We think socialism is going to be bad for law enforcement in New York,” Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston police officers union, told Fox News. Griffith added that he believes Mamdani’s low opinion of police officers will serve to “demoralize NYPD officers” and cause them to leave.

“Zohran won. Abdul is next,” El-Sayed reportedly said in a July campaign ad. “His victory is proof that bold, progressive policy is what Americans want.”

Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.