Lies About
Abdul

The facts

The quotes come from an op-ed about childhood obesity that El-Sayed wrote in 2010.⁵ The ad deliberately misquotes him. As a public health expert, El-Sayed said that “America's political leadership” as a whole had been “uninspired” in addressing the obesity crisis among children. He then discussed Obama's “Let's Move” campaign as one of the few efforts to tackle the problem, calling the program “commendable, if ineffectual.”

His point was that “Let's Move” had failed to reduce childhood obesity rates, which is true.⁶ He praised Obama's work, writing that “to her credit, Obama has attempted to tackle the issue in a non-partisan manner.” But he said the program was flawed, since it emphasized individual choices over structural factors like access to healthy foods.

That's it. That's all he said. He mildly critiqued a program — not the woman who ran it — after praising it. Read the article yourself and see whether “disrespecting women” is a fair way to describe it.

The facts

When El-Sayed ran against Gretchen Whitmer for governor in 2018, he criticized her heavy ties to the health insurance industry.⁷ Whitmer's father was the chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield, and his successor as CEO, Daniel Loepp, was the one who first encouraged her to enter politics. Lobbyists for Blue Cross Blue Shield threw Whitmer a fundraiser that netted $144,000 in a single day, and the company's executives directly encouraged employees to attend.⁸

In that race, Whitmer was the only one of the three candidates who did not support single-payer healthcare, calling it “not realistic for Michigan.” Single-payer would be a major financial benefit to consumers — and devastating for the profits of corporations like Blue Cross Blue Shield.

El-Sayed did say that politicians like Whitmer — and not just Whitmer — were “bought and sold.” He meant that these corporations make heavy campaign contributions, and the politicians then serve their interests in office. The criticism has nothing to do with Whitmer's gender. It is a criticism of the money behind her political rise.

The facts

El-Sayed has never faced a discrimination lawsuit. The ad is built to make you think he was sued. He wasn't. He was quoted in a legal document in a discrimination lawsuit against the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he worked.⁹ Nowhere in the 150-page complaint is El-Sayed accused of doing anything discriminatory.

The ad doesn't even quote him correctly. He was not accused of saying he “didn't want to work with” anyone over 40 — he was reported to have said he was excited that everyone on the team was under 40.

Note that none of this has anything to do with “disrespecting women.” He is not accused of saying anything sexist. The remark was overheard, so we don't know his exact words, but nobody claimed he discriminated against older people. Perhaps you think the comment was unfair to them. But being excited to work alongside other young people is fairly typical for young people — and now that El-Sayed is over 40 himself, he probably thinks a little differently!

The facts

The employee was a member of El-Sayed's security team, Jordan Domingue, who resigned earlier this year. He told the Michigan Enjoyer that he was offered compensation in exchange for signing a separation agreement.¹⁰ But he did not say the agreement was offered because El-Sayed disparaged women and wanted to cover it up.

Domingue indicated that he was a supporter of Israel, and that he resigned over what he called El-Sayed's “concerning foreign policy positions.” He declined to sign a non-disparagement agreement because he wanted to be free to “warn voters” that El-Sayed was too anti-Israel, citing El-Sayed's decision to campaign with the leftist streamer Hasan Piker.

Domingue's posts, which the ad cites as its source, do not quote any specific statement by El-Sayed disparaging women — but they do repeatedly accuse him of sympathy for Hamas and Hezbollah. Domingue claimed El-Sayed once used “offensive language” about opponent Mallory McMorrow, but never indicated what El-Sayed supposedly said.¹¹ Elsewhere, he said he suspected El-Sayed had said something “offensive or misogynistic” in a private meeting with Gretchen Whitmer — while admitting he had not been in the meeting and was purely guessing.¹²

Once again, a controversy supposedly about sexism turns out to be about Israel.