CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford apologized for a politically charged X post that commented on an exchange between Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and a man who posed a question about whether the candidate disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood.
Crawford posted on X on Sunday, “Earlier, I tweeted a video from an Abdul El-Sayed town hall. I deleted that tweet because it was a violation of CBS News standards. I apologize.”
Crawford’s earlier post expressed support for the questioner, who gave his name as Tommy. After asking El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, the candidate responded, “Yeah, sure, absolutely, but I want to ask to the question that you are asking. Why are you asking the question?”
“Because they are a terrorist group,” Tommy responded.
“No. No. What are you implying. Do you assume that I wouldn’t?”
“Have you disavowed them? I haven’t heard you disavow them yet.”
The exchange went on, and El-Sayed compared the questions over his Muslim faith to that faced by John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in 1960 and had to overcome fearmongering that, as a Catholic, he would take directives from the pope.
The El-Sayed campaign later posted video of the exchange, a sign that they believe that it will help the candidate amid attacks from the right that have tried to link his Muslim faith to ties to extremist groups. The Trump administration has designated Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations. El-Sayed supporters pointed out on social media that the man who posed the question was a Republican staffer.
In her earlier X post, Crawford wrote, “Tommy, thank you. I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abul 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.”
A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Most networks and major news organizations have social media policies that frown on overt partisanship.
Last year, ABC News chose not to renew the contract of Terry Moran after he posted an attack on Donald Trump and his top aide Stephen Miller on social media. Moran later went on to launch his own Substack, where he is freer to express his point of view.
Several months after acquiring Paramount last year, Skydance CEO David Ellison tapped former New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss to run CBS News as editor in chief, while she would continue to lead The Free Press, the center-right site she founded that is heavy in commentary and analysis. Ellison also purchased The Free Press, and it is linked as an offering on CBSNews.com.
Weiss herself has drawn scrutiny for her X posts. In February, she posted a fire emoji to her personal X account above a clip of Masih Alinejad, who criticized New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his condemnation of U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran. Alinejad is a CBS News contributor who was born in Iran and, per the Justice Department, was targeted for assassination by the Iranian regime.
Last week, Status reported on leaked audio of an exchange in the network’s London bureau. In the audio, Shayndi Raice, who Weiss selected as foreign editor, argued against the inclusion of reporting on Palestinian deaths in Holly Williams’ report marking the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
El-Sayed has denied ties to the Muslim Brotherhood when asked about it during interviews. The campaign of his opponent in the Senate race, Mike Rogers, has pointed to tweets from 2012 made by his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, including one where she referred to her mother’s activism with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s.