CBS correspondent apologizes for post praising El-Sayed town-hall attendee

CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford deleted a social-media post and apologized Sunday after siding with the attendee who pressed Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, saying the post “was a violation of CBS News standards,” Variety and TheWrap reported.

In the since-deleted post, Crawford reshared a video from El-Sayed’s official account of the exchange and wrote: “Tommy, thank you. I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s nanosecond ‘yeah absolutely’ response. His subsequent uninterrupted three-minute diatribe proving your exact point is the kind of spectacular self-own most people only dream about triggering. Congrats.”

“Earlier, I tweeted a video from an Abdul El-Sayed town hall. I deleted that tweet because it was a violation of CBS News standards. I apologize,” Crawford wrote in a Sunday-morning post on X.

The exchange at the Saturday town hall in Caro, Michigan, drew wide attention after El-Sayed, who could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, accused the man of assuming he held “dual loyalty” because of his faith, a response that drew cheers from the crowd and praise from liberals on social media. Crawford, who joined CBS News in 2009, covers the Supreme Court and contributes to “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Mornings” and “Face the Nation.”