A video of an exchange at an Abdul El-Sayed town hall drew notice after CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford shared it and then removed the post. Crawford later said the action violated network standards.
She explained the decision on X. “Earlier, I tweeted a video from an Abdul El-Sayed town hall,” Crawford wrote. “I deleted that tweet because it was a violation of CBS News standards. I apologize.”
The removed post had thanked the person in the video and pointed to a brief reply from El-Sayed. According to Mediaite, Crawford wrote, “Tommy, thank you. I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s nanosecond, ‘yeah, absolutely,’ response. His subsequent uninterrupted diatribe proving your exact point is the kind of spectacular self-own is the kind ppl only dream about triggering. Congrats.”
Questions about the Muslim Brotherhood shaped the town hall moment
El-Sayed is seeking a Senate seat in Michigan. The person called Tommy raised a point also used by his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, about possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. CBS News has faced earlier scrutiny over a reported headline change tying El-Sayed to 9/11.
Tommy asked, “Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?” El-Sayed replied, “Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” before adding, “Why are you asking the question?” Tommy said, “Well, because they’re a terrorist group.” El-Sayed then asked, “But what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?” Tommy answered, “Yes, because I have not heard you disavow them yet.”
El-Sayed went on to say, “You’re asking the question because implicitly you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right? You assume that somehow I wouldn’t disavow, or that I’ll have some higher order allegiance than the Constitution.”
Left-wing independent journalist Marisa Kabas later identified Tommy as a right-wing plant. She wrote that his father is Timmy Teepell, a Republican strategist who worked for congressman and then Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal from 2004 to 2011 and also ran Jindal’s presidential primary campaign in 2015.
According to Kabas, Teepell joined the consulting firm OnMessage in 2011 and helped Josh Hawley get elected Attorney General of Missouri in 2016. She noted that two years later he helped Hawley become a United States Senator.
Terry Moran, who was fired from ABC after a partisan post about White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, denounced the post before it was taken down. Media watchdogs also called out the post, and left-leaning critics responded to Crawford as well.
Published: Oct 19, 2026 08:30 am