Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was questioned on CNN's "Inside Politics" on Sunday, July 12, 2026, about a resurfaced radio interview from 2020 in which he explicitly called for defunding the police following the George Floyd riots.

In the interview, El-Sayed stated, "I believe that we do need to defund the police insofar as defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating or killing them on the streets," and emphasized investing more in education and community empowerment to address systemic poverty and racism.

El-Sayed also wrote in a June 2020 post on X, "Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about," just weeks after George Floyd's death.

During the CNN segment, host Manu Raju confronted El-Sayed about these comments despite the candidate's prior claims of never supporting defunding the police. El-Sayed responded, "You know, what's interesting about that comment is I go as far as defining what I mean by that," and noted his work with law enforcement in Wayne County, Michigan, where he supports investing in retention and retirement for officers.

The discussion also touched on whether the defund the police stance could affect El-Sayed's electability in the upcoming November election.

Sources