Jan Crawford, a veteran CBS legal correspondent, wrote on X on Sunday that she had deleted a previous tweet because it was a violation of CBS News standards. Her deleted post thanked a man named Tommy for questioning El-Sayed at a town hall, describing the candidate's extended response as a 'spectacular self own'.
The video showed a man asking El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. After the candidate replied 'Sure. Yeah, absolutely,' he asked why the question was being asked, stating it implicitly assumed dual loyalties. Crawford's initial praise of the questioner prompted significant backlash within CBS and across the media.
The Guardian's media reporter Jeremy Barr noted there was significant internal backlash at CBS News to the tweet, which may explain the deletion. Journalist AJ Katz said Crawford is the network's chief legal correspondent, not an opinion commentator. CNN political commentator Karen Finney accused Crawford of being 'caught red handed' spreading 'false, racist lies about Abdul because he is Muslim.'
The incident comes as CBS News faces scrutiny over political bias following the appointment of conservative commentator Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief in October 2025. Weiss's former company, The Free Press, was acquired by CBS parent Paramount Skydance. Earlier in the week, newly appointed global affairs correspondent Sir Trevor Phillips delivered blunt remarks to staff, telling critics questioning the outlet's integrity to 'fuck off and let us do our jobs'.
El-Sayed, who is running against Republican Mike Rogers in the November midterms, told MSNBC host Ali Velshi the question was designed to insinuate dual loyalties. 'It's a crazy thing to assume that somehow I'd have dual loyalties, as somebody who is avidly running to protect rights,' he said, referencing abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom.