A new CNN investigation revealed that Abdul El-Sayed, a U.S. Senate candidate from Michigan, quietly removed about a dozen posts backing the defund the police movement from 2020-2021.

A Michigan Senate candidate backed by "Squad" Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and other far-left politicians quietly deleted old social media posts he made online espousing support for the "defund the police" movement between 2020 and 2021.

This anti-law enforcement rhetoric became a flashpoint for Democrats during the summer of 2020 and during the Biden years. The anti-police rhetoric was also a major issue during the New York City mayoral race as Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani faced immense backlash for his past anti-police rhetoric, compelling the candidate to go on Fox News at one point to apologize for what he once said. 

"Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty," El-Sayed wrote in a June 2020 post on X, then-Twitter, just several weeks after the death of George Floyd. "Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about."

"The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people," El-Sayed said in a separate post on social media from around the same time.

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El-Sayed's past social media posts, which were first reported by CNN, include about a dozen posts that espoused support for the "defund the police" movement.

"When we make a choice to invest in policing in a majority black community, rather than to invest in public schools, that choice is influenced by systemic racism," El-Sayed said during an interview for Michigan Online that was posted to YouTube around the same time as his social media posts that have now been deleted. "When we talk about the question of quote-unquote defunding the police," he continued, "it's a question of asking how do we right-size government away from the racist ideologies that have led us to investing in war material for policing rather than public health for children." 

El-Sayed, a former executive director of Detroit's health department, is running in a crowded primary to win Michigan's Senate seat against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and many others. On the Republican side, former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is considered the frontrunner after he narrowly lost a bid for the seat in 2024. 

"I’m proud to endorse Abdul El-Sayed to be our next Senator," Tlaib said earlier this month during a town hall tour featuring El-Sayed. "As a health equity champion and Medicare for All advocate, Abdul leads with a grassroots vision for change centered on inclusion and dignity for Michigan families. He has long been a fighter — we were arrested together in 2018 while protesting for a $15 minimum wage — and he is fighting now to kick money out of politics, tackle our affordability crisis, and build a stronger, healthier Michigan." 

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In response to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the CNN probe, a campaign spokesperson for El-Sayed shared a statement about how the former health director has worked to support law enforcement. The statement also touted El-Sayed's endorsements from individuals in the law enforcement community. 

"On his third week as Wayne County’s Health Officer, Dr. El-Sayed declared a public health emergency at the Juvenile Detention Facility, working alongside law enforcement to fully rebuild it from the studs, raising officers’ wages by 35% and funding a safer, more humane system," the statement said. "He learned and grew through the process—and has earned endorsements from a sitting Sheriff, a former Sheriff, and a Detroit Police Commissioner."

The campaign statement also slammed President Donald Trump's "militarizing" of agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and argued that "rather than defund Police" El-Sayed is "challenging" the government to reconsider the way it allocates its money.  

"Rather than defund Police, Dr. El-Sayed is challenging government choices that defund food, healthcare, and social services while militarizing agencies like ICE in sharp contrast to Donald Trump’s presidency because real safety comes from investing in people—not in tanks and tear gas," the campaign statement concluded. 

In addition to Tlaib, self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and far-left Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison endorsed his campaign.

El-Sayed, who has been compared to Mamdani, has embraced the comparison between him and New York City's mayor-elect, a self-described socialist with connections to the broader socialist movement. "Like Zohran, I’m running a people-powered campaign because I know we deserve better," El-Sayed reportedly said in a campaign advertisement that now appears to be deleted, according to the Washington Examiner.

But it isn't just their policies that are similar; so are their opinions about the police. 

Prior to Mamdani's election victory last week, he was compelled to go on Fox News and apologize for his past anti-police comments calling the New York Police Department (NYPD) "racist, anti‑queer & a major threat to public safety." Mamdani's past comments, which also included support for the "defund the police" movement, came around the same time as El-Sayed's social media posts that followed the death of George Floyd. 

Mamdani told Fox News Digital at the time that he had apologized to rank-and-file NYPD officers behind closed doors and when pressed on whether he would offer a broad, public apology, Mamdani said, "Absolutely."

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"I apologize because of the fact that I'm looking to work with these officers, and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day," Mamdani added.

But, despite the apology, Mamdani's negative comments about the police may have already spurred damage. In October, the same month as his Fox News apology and just weeks before Mamdani's widely expected victory, the NYPD reportedly saw a 35% hike in cops of all ranks leaving the department, according to the New York Post's analysis of Police Pension Fund data.

"Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place," Scott Munro, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, said.

Other police departments around the country appear to be taking advantage of this exodus too, with one, in Houston, Texas, offering "disgusted" NYPD officers the opportunity to come work for them.     

"We believe socialism is going to be bad for law enforcement in New York City," Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, told Fox News. Griffith added that he believes Mamdani's poor view of police officers will serve to "demoralize the officers of the NYPD" and result in them leaving.

"Zohran won. Abdul is next," El-Sayed reportedly stated in a July campaign ad. "His win is proof that bold, progressive politics are what Americans want."