Michigan Senate hopeful Dr. Abdul El-Sayed formally apologized to Jewish Democrats for weaving a jab at Israel in his response to an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March.
Page A8From§Eachthe supper edition — 30 August 2026
Clyburn offers El-Sayed a second chance days after El-Sayed apologizes for lamenting a terrorist's family's death.
As it ran on the front
Second chances are free, it turns out, as long as you're already inside the building. Clyburn spent a column regretting that he ever defended Clarence Thomas — his words, not mine, he actually said he rues it — and then turned around the same week and told the country El-Sayed deserves a second chance, days after El-Sayed finally apologized for lamenting a terrorist's family's death. Finally. That word's doing a lot of work. It means the apology waited long enough that somebody had to ask for it out loud before it showed up.
I'm not here to tell you the apology wasn't real. I'm here to tell you who gets to cash the coupon. If you're inside the tent, the sequence goes: say the ugly thing, wait out the news cycle, apologize when the pressure's specific enough, get absolved by a senior member of your own party who frames it as a virtue — 'all of us deserve second chances' — like he's the one being generous instead of just being consistent with his own team.…
…(cont) Compare the pace. The apology took time to 'finally' arrive. The forgiveness arrived same-day, no waiting period, no independent review, no third party weighing in on whether the apology was sufficient. One side of that transaction got scrutiny. The other side got a press release with a bow on it.
This isn't really about El-Sayed, and it isn't really about Clyburn regretting Thomas either, though he should sit with that regret a little longer than a headline allows. It's about the tent having two doors: one for the people who have to earn their way back in, and one for the people who never really left, who just needed somebody with a microphone to say the sentence that makes it official again. The second chance was never the scarce resource here. The apology was.
“Clyburn rues defending Clarence Thomas one week and hands El-Sayed a pardon disguised as a life lesson the next. The apology arrived 'finally,' which means it took pressure to show up; the forgiveness arrived instantly, which means it never needed any. Same party, same spokesman, two very different clocks.”
The receipts
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Sunday said he supports Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) after he apologized for comments he made following an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this year, with the South Carolina House…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.