Centrist Democrats opened the door for anti-Muslim attacks on their party’s nominee in Michigan — finding common cause with right-wing bigots. The post CBS News Spins El-Sayed’s 9/11 Tweets Into a Manufactured Anti-Muslim Scandal appeared first on The Intercept .
Page A7From§Eachthe milkman edition — 6 September 2026
Senate candidate accused of 9/11 ties days after his last 9/11 scandal was revealed as network-built.
As it ran on the front
Monday the New York Post reported that Abdul El-Sayed had shared a stage with 9/11 conspiracy theorists Cenk Uygur and Zaid Shakir. Friday it ran a cleric calling El-Sayed's rise, alongside New York's mayor, a "blessing" of October 7th. The same day, Fox let El-Sayed answer for himself, and he said the Israel questions keep landing on him because of his name and his faith. In between, on Wednesday, Tucker Carlson told his podcast audience the whole campaign was "literally Trumpian." That's the week. Now walk it back five more days.
On September 1st, Common Dreams reported that Bari Weiss, CBS News's editor-in-chief, was personally involved in a CBS story tying El-Sayed to September 11th, built out of posts he'd made about the attacks. The same day, The Intercept called it a manufactured anti-Muslim scandal — a story a network built, not one it stumbled into.…
…(cont) Line up the dates and the shape repeats before the current cycle even starts. A network builds a 9/11 hook in-house on September 1st. Four days later a tabloid opens a new one — different conference, different cleric, same two words doing the same work. A cable host in between calls the candidate's campaign the enemy's name, which in this business functions as an insult and an endorsement at once, depending which studio you're standing in.
None of this proves the outlets are talking to each other. It proves something flatter and more useful to whoever's running it: the accusation is reusable. Once "9/11" and "El-Sayed" get built into one frame, anyone can pour a new fact into that mold — a podium, a quote, a cleric's boast — and the frame carries weight the fact alone never earns.
El-Sayed's own read, that his name and his faith are why reporters keep finding a fresh angle on the same nine numbers, isn't paranoia if the frame keeps getting reused on schedule. It's a Senate seat in Michigan, and whoever wins gets a vote on where the money in this country actually goes. That part isn't rhetorical.
The receipts don't prove a conspiracy. They prove a factory that runs one shift ahead of the story it's supposedly just covering.
“One network spent days building a 9/11 story out of old posts, and days later a different outlet found a real conference to hang the same two words on. The machine doesn't need a conspiracy to keep running — it just needs somebody willing to keep feeding it a Muslim candidate's name. That's the whole play, and it pays out whether he wins the seat or loses it.”
“Look, the candidate shared a stage with people who've said some pretty out-there things about 9/11 — that's just reporting on the room he chose to stand in. And sure, CBS's editor-in-chief happened to be personally involved in the story that started this whole cycle, but that's just thorough editorial oversight. Did I say "personally involved"? Forget I said that.”
The receipts
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed suggested reporters press him on the Israel-Hamas war because of his name and faith.
Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed spoke at a Detroit conference alongside 9/11 conspiracy theorists Cenk Uygur and Zaid Shakir.
A prominent Muslim Brotherhood-linked cleric boasted that the rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Dem. Senate candidate Abdul Al-Sayed are "the blessings" of October 7.
· Bari Weiss Personally Involved in CBS News Hit Piece on Abdul El-Sayed: Report from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Tucker Carlson: El-Sayed campaign 'literally Trumpian' from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.