Abdul El-Sayed's pattern of hostile exchanges with reporters draws scrutiny after viral moment
Abdul El-Sayed's pattern of hostile exchanges with reporters draws scrutiny after viral moment
Senator-elect , D-Mich., went viral this week for his latest altercation with a reporter, putting a spotlight on a history of tense exchanges with the press.
El-Sayed had a with Sky News reporter James Matthews just hours before his victory in Tuesday's midterm elections. The exchange began when the British journalist attempted to question El-Sayed, but it was hardly the first time El-Sayed appeared to either lose his temper, interrupt a journalist or respond sharply to a reporter.
Heritage Foundation media fellow Tim Young is well aware that President Donald Trump also has a long history of criticizing reporters, but he believes the situations are "completely different."
"El-Sayed gets angry at the media for asking actual questions about him and his relationship to organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. He legitimately doesnt want to answer those questions, so he snaps," Young told .
"Trump gets asked the same narrative-shaping questions all the time, then watches networks create false narratives about him on air, which makes him angry," Young continued. "The two are not the same."
El-Sayed recently scolded a reporter for asking him about , sarcastically declaring, "Youre really asking the questions that the people want to hear."
"Ask me a serious question," he added.
El-Sayed also Tom Llamas in October after Llamas questioned him about allegations involving his family's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Its funny to me. I was born in 1984, down the street in Rochester Hills. I was raised here in Michigan, went to the University of Michigan, rebuilt the health department in this city, led the health department in this county, and you want to ask me about Egypt in 1970? Are you serious?" he retorted.
El-Sayed then accused Llamas of using "hearsay evidence from a tweet" and suggested the "NBC Nightly News" anchor was "not serious" before asking, "Are you insinuating that somehow I was lying?"
That same month, El-Sayed shut down Free Press reporter Audrey Fahlberg for asking about private comments he made on leaked audio regarding some Michigan residents mourning the death of Ayatollah Khamenei.
El-Sayed insisted he would answer questions about gas prices and groceries but declined to "talk about leaked audio" and accused Fahlberg of seeking clickbait.
"Im just not interested in this dog and pony show," El-Sayed said. "Ask smart questions."
Fahlberg responded that his thoughts on Khamenei were relevant considering he frequently discusses foreign policy, but El-Sayed refused to engage.
Fahlberg later said El-Sayed appeared to become furious whenever asked about the Iranian regime.
Weeks later, El-Sayed "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier, repeatedly interrupting Baier during an exchange over the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed has also spoken about confronting media personalities.
"You know how many terrible things Bill Maher has said about people like me? Terrible, awful things," El-Sayed said during a September interview with Chuck Todd.
"I would go on that show," El-Sayed continued. "I wanna give people the image of watching him get his a-- whooped on his own show by a guy who prays like I do."
As for El-Sayeds latest encounter, the viral Election Day moment occurred when he walked up to Matthews and asked, "Are you registered to vote in the state of Michigan?"
"I'm not," the British U.S.-based correspondent responded.
"Why would I care to have a conversation with you?" the Democrat fired back.
After Matthews answered that he was a journalist, El-Sayed scoffed while responding, "In the U.K."
"You know how many votes I want to get in the U.K.? Zero," El-Sayed told Mathews as he put both his hands on the reporter's shoulders. "I'm never running for office in the U.K."
Matthews stressed that the
