Michigan Senate Candidate Faces Scrutiny Over Deleted 9/11 Social Media Posts

As the United States approaches the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny over past social media comments about the tragedy, following a report by CBS News. The report, published on August 31, 2026, highlighted several of El-Sayed's deleted posts that drew comparisons between the 9/11 death toll and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as criticism of U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of the attacks.

The CBS article cited posts from 2020 and 2021 that had been removed from El-Sayed's accounts. One post from April 2020 compared the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on September 11, 2001, to the rising COVID-19 death toll, arguing for a public health response commensurate with the nation's post-9/11 mobilization. Another deleted post, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon and dated September 11, 2021, read: "Today, I mourn the 3K lives, 6K injuries, infrastructural devastation in NYC, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my faith. Tomorrow, I'll mourn 1M lives, millions of injuries, infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country." This post appeared...