CNN Panel Erupts Over Republican Ad Campaign Using El-Sayed’s Full Muslim Name

A CNN panel descended into a heated shouting match over a Republican ad campaign targeting Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed — specifically, its use of his full legal name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed — with panelists clashing over whether the tactic was a deliberate appeal to anti-Muslim sentiment.The debate unfolded on “CNN NewsNight” on Monday, hosted by guest anchor Jon Berman, following a clip of Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina defending the ads. When asked whether using Mr. El-Sayed’s full name was a coded way of signaling to voters that he is Muslim, Mr. Scott pushed back: “Not at all…I can get called Timothy Eugene. I get called that all the time.”Mr. Berman was unconvinced. “I have never heard Tim Scott referred to as Timothy Eugene in a campaign ad,” he said.Niall Stanage, associate editor at The Hill, was more pointed. “I don’t know how he says that with a straight face, honestly,” Mr. Stanage said. “The idea that using Tim Scott’s full name, unabbreviated, is equivalent to using Abdul El-Sayed’s full name is just ludicrous. It is obviously, in El-Sayed’s case, an appeal to anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment.”The Council on American-Islamic Relations agreed. Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, said the tactic followed a well-worn political playbook. “He is intentionally saying his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, to say, ‘Look, this guy is outside what we would consider to be a normative America.’ It’s a political tactic, and we’ve seen it before,” Mr. Walid told ClickOnDetroit.Back on CNN, the panel quickly unraveled. Conservative radio host Jason Rantz dismissed concerns about the ad campaign, sarcastically remarking, “People didn’t know he was Muslim until they said his full name?” When Mr. Stanage pivoted to criticizing U.S. arms transfers to Israel — describing the Biden administration as “forfeiting concerns for human rights, all the while shoveling weapons to Mr. Netanyahu with which to kill 70,000 Palestinians” — Mr. Rantz cut in: “It always goes back to the Jews! Like, every single time… El-Sayed has brought up AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] and brings it up absolutely every single time he can because he wants to talk about the Jews.”“AIPAC?” Mr. Stanage shot back. “Because they support the most right-wing government in Israel’s history!”Another panelist, Jesse Arm of the Manhattan Institute, attempted to redirect, mocking Mr. Stanage’s Irish nationality before arguing that Michigan voters’ real concern was economic. “People of Michigan are actually scared of Abdul El-Sayed, not because of Israel or whatever — no one cares about Israel,” Mr. Arm said. “He’s going to rip away Obamacare. He’s going to rip away private health insurance from the 66% of Americans who have it.”Mr. Stanage countered that these attacks were meant to obscure El-Sayed’s platform. “A lot of these claims are made to distract from what El-Sayed is standing for on an economic basis,” he said. “He stands for Medicare for all, which has polled well for years… He stands for the reduction of money in politics, which people of all kinds of ideology agree with. That’s why he won.”Mr. El-Sayed narrowly won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary over moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens. He now faces former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November’s general election in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.

CNN Panel Erupts Over Republican Ad Campaign Using El-Sayed’s Full Muslim Name

CNN Panel Erupts Over Republican Ad Campaign Using El-Sayed’s Full Muslim Name

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