White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat
Social media video highlights his calls to abolish ICE, defund police and expand the Supreme Court
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat
Photograph: The Gateway Pundit (embedded from source)
What this story says
- The White House posted a video on 9 August 2026 compiling Abdul El-Sayed’s past statements on defunding police, abolishing ICE and expanding the Supreme Court.
- El-Sayed, who won a Michigan primary last week, has denied being a socialist but has attended at least six Democratic Socialists of America events.
- A DSA spokeswoman declined to answer when asked who would catch a rapist if police and prisons were abolished.
- Eleven right-rated outlets carried the story; no left- or centre-rated outlet did.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 11 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 12 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
42/100
Craft
31/100
Hype
67/100
12 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 11 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
On 9 August 2026 the White House posted a video on social media compiling statements by Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan primary winner. The video shows El-Sayed calling for defunding police, abolishing ICE, imposing wealth taxes, expanding the Supreme Court and impeaching former president Donald Trump. The White House caption described El-Sayed and the far-left Democrats as a direct threat to America and its values.
El-Sayed has denied being a socialist. He told Fox News in July 2026 that he is not a socialist and believes in capitalism, though regulated. He has attended at least six Democratic Socialists of America events, including one in 2019 where he was photographed with US Representative Rashida Tlaib. Detroit DSA has called him a longtime friend.
Separately, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Socialists of America, Frances Gill, declined to answer when asked on live television who would catch a rapist if police and prisons were abolished. The question was put by a news anchor during an interview about defunding law enforcement.
What the coverage left out
No left- or centre-rated outlet carried the story. None of the right-rated digests or the Gateway Pundit report mentioned El-Sayed’s denial that he is a socialist, or his statement that he believes in regulated capitalism.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 6 times, most recently on 11 Aug 2026, 05:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated centre has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Right
11 rated outlets
- All eleven right-rated digests led on the White House video and on the DSA spokeswoman’s refusal to answer the question about rapists. The Gateway Pundit, the only outlet whose full report is printed, called El-Sayed’s positions communist and quoted his past statements verbatim: “F*ck ICE” and “disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets”. It also reported that El-Sayed defended socialist influencer Hasan Piker on NBC’s Meet the Press.
- The digests carried the White House’s description of El-Sayed’s views as a direct threat to America. They also reported that El-Sayed has called for defunding police, abolishing ICE, wealth taxes and expanding the Supreme Court. Ten of the eleven digests mentioned the DSA spokeswoman’s refusal to say who would catch a rapist if police were abolished.
Read it at the source
12 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Right
11- DSA Leader Dodges Question: Who Catches a Rapist if Police, Prisons Abolished? (opens Breitbart in a new tab)
- ‘If my daughter is assaulted and raped’: Watch DSA spokeswoman give absurd answer to defund-the-police question * WorldNetDaily * by WND Staff (opens OpsLens in a new tab)
- ‘If my daughter is assaulted and raped’: Watch DSA spokeswoman give absurd answer to defund-the-police question (opens WND in a new tab)
- Abolish the Police? Democrats Face Their Socialist Problem (opens [your]NEWS in a new tab)
[your]NEWS — is [your]NEWS biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Watch DSA Official Squirm As She's Grilled on Policies - Her Answers Are Something Else (opens RedState in a new tab)
RedState — is RedState biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Socialist leader squirms during TV interview when forced to address push to abolish prisons, police (opens Fox News in a new tab)
- At The Federalist: Socialists’ Demands To Abolish Police And Prisons Will Mean More Dead Americans (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Socialists’ Demands To Abolish Police And Prisons Will Mean More Dead Americans (opens Conservative Review in a new tab)
Conservative Review — is Conservative Review biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
Show 3 more
- Socialists' Demands To Abolish Police Will Mean Dead Americans (opens The Federalist in a new tab)
The Federalist — is The Federalist biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- DSA Doc’s Cop-Free Vision Faces The Question Of What Happens To Rapists (opens The Daily Wire in a new tab)
The Daily Wire — is The Daily Wire biased? Our profile of this outlet
- White House Shares Abdul El-Sayed Highlight Reel: Defund Police, Transform Supreme Court, Wealth Tax, Abolish ICE, Impeach Trump, and More (opens The Gateway Pundit in a new tab)
The Gateway Pundit — is The Gateway Pundit biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
1Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat?
- Of the 11 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 0% are rated centre, 100% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 12. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 11 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat biased?
- White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat is one event reported by 12 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered White House calls Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a communist threat?
- 12 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What did the White House say about Abdul El-Sayed?
- The White House posted a video on 9 August 2026 compiling El-Sayed’s past statements on defunding police, abolishing ICE and expanding the Supreme Court. It described his views as a direct threat to America and the values that define the nation. The video was shared on social media with that caption.
- Has Abdul El-Sayed called himself a socialist?
- El-Sayed has denied being a socialist. In July 2026 he told Fox News he is not a socialist and believes in capitalism, though regulated. He has attended at least six Democratic Socialists of America events and has been described as a longtime friend of Detroit DSA.
- Which outlets carried the story?
- Eleven right-rated outlets carried the story, including The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, Fox News and The Daily Wire. No left- or centre-rated outlet carried it. The right-rated reports led on the White House video and on a DSA spokeswoman’s refusal to say who would catch a rapist if police were abolished.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
