CNN’s K-File Uncovers Deleted Tweets of Abdul El-Sayed Calling to Defund Police in 2020

EXCERPT:

KACZINSKY: “Well, Erin, what we found, that in 2020, El-Sayed didn‘t just tweet about defunding the police. He defended the idea in multiple interviews, including one where he plainly said, ‘We do need to defund the police.’ Now, you mentioned this in your intro, but I want people to look at — first look at what he told the Detroit news late last year. He said, ‘I want to be clear. I actually never, never called for defunding. My goal in that conversation was to help everybody understand what we were talking about. Law enforcement exists for a reason, but ideally, you want to make sure that there are not folks out there committing crimes in the first place.’ So El-Sayed‘s argument was that he was not calling to defund the police. He was trying to explain a broader policy idea, funding things like social services, public health, education and anti-poverty programs to prevent crime before it happens. But what we found in 2020 is that El-Sayed actually went further than that. In interviews at the time, he didn‘t just describe investing in other services. He also explicitly said that meant spending less on police, and in one interview, he said directly that police should be defunded and less money should be spent on police. Listen to this.”