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Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed addressed his past charges of apparently supporting efforts to “defund the police” on CNN’s “Inside Politics” on Sunday.
In a radio interview cited by CNN, El-Sayed openly called for defunding the police after the 2020 George Floyd riots.
“I believe that we need to pay the police because the withdrawal of the police is to end the money for arresting or killing them on the streets,” said El-Sayed. “And by investing more in ways to educate and empower, to engage with communities on ways to be able to take on organized poverty, that we allow organized racism to grow in many communities.”
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Abdul El-Sayed has been repeatedly asked about whether he currently supports efforts to “defund the police.” (Jose Juarez/AP Photo)
CNN’s Manu Raju asked El-Sayed about his comments in the clip despite previously saying he never supported defunding the police.
“You know, what’s interesting about that comment is that I even explain what I mean by that,” said El-Sayed. “Don’t you agree with investing in libraries and public services and social services? You fix the word ‘defund,’ but what I’m talking about is the war stuff that we did a lot during the war in Iraq. And then, because we had so much, we had to find some place to sell it. So we sold it in the whole collection to the local police departments.”
“I believe in investing in retention and retirement to strengthen the law. I have done law enforcement work during my time in Wayne County -“
“But wouldn’t that … that police defunding issue be the issue of not being able to vote in November?” Raju enters.
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Social media posts and videos show Abdul El-Sayed using the phrase “extorting money from the police.” (Getty Images)
“Let me finish my answer, Manu,” replied El-Sayed. “Actually, I don’t think that’s the case. I think most people agree that they want to get home safe every night. I think the way we think about law enforcement is that we respond to all the problems of the community with a person with a gun, and if you talk to the law enforcement officers that I’ve worked with very closely, they will tell you that they don’t want to know that they are dealing with those problems.”
“So maybe instead of investing in military police, we invest in a safe retirement fund,” he continued. “And then, instead of sending a guy with a gun, we’re actually sending a trained mental health professional.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” added El-Sayed. “That’s what I explained. And I think that’s exactly what people want. Now, if you want to keep talking about some particular buzzword that I was trying to explain at the time, sure. But I think if we have a serious discussion about public safety, you’ll see that my opinion is in line with what most reasonable people on this question are talking about.”
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
MICHIGAN SENATOR ABDUL EL-SAYED DODGES A QUESTION THAT HE SUPPORTS INTERVIEWING POLICE.
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan spent his campaign denying that he wanted to defund the police, but in an undisclosed clip he asked, “Do the police really need to use guns?” (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
Before his campaign, El-Sayed deleted several tweets criticizing the implementation of the law.
“Many large US cities spend WAY TOO much on police departments to police poverty AND DO TOO MUCH on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, and housing to end poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is all about,” El-Sayed wrote in another. June 2020 post on X just a few weeks after the death of George Floyd.
When asked by CNN about the tweets earlier this month, El-Sayed denied that he was involved in any efforts to repay the police.
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“Judging by my work, I funded this program because it needed funding,” he said. The question we don’t ask is, what kind of program do we really want? I want us to invest in the kind of interventions that really protect people.”
