Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed confronted on ‘defund the police’ past

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed took issue with his past remarks for supporting efforts to “defund the police” during an appearance on CNN’s “Domestic Politics” on Sunday.

In a resurfaced radio interview Quoted from CNNEl-Sayed publicly called for defunding the police in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd riots.

“As long as defunding the police means not investing in ways to imprison or kill them on the streets, I believe we should defund the police,” El-Sayed said. “And by investing more in education and empowerment tools, connecting communities with the tools to take on systemic poverty, we have allowed systemic racism to fester in too many communities.”

WATCH: VIDEOS REVEALED OF DEM SENATOR CANDIDATE SUPPORTING ‘DEFUNDING THE POLICE’ AND RECENT DENIALS

CNN host Manu Raju asked El-Sayed about his comments in the clip, even though he has previously claimed that he has never supported defunding the police.

“You know, the interesting thing about this comment is that I don’t go so far as to define what I mean by that,” El-Sayed said. “Are you against investing in libraries, utilities, and social services? You’re tripping over the word ‘expend funds,’ but I’m talking about the war materials that we used a lot of during the war in Iraq. Then, because we had so much, we had to find a place to sell them. So we sold them to a bunch of local police departments.”

“I believe in investing in retention and retirement for law enforcement. I have worked with law enforcement throughout my time in Wayne County -“

“But wouldn’t this … issue of defunding the police become an electability issue in November?” Raju intervened.

LEFT WING PRESSURE HOST EL-SAYED OVER ‘PHYSICIAN’ CLAIM, HOPEFULLY QUESTIONS MICHIGAN DEM SENATE’S INTEGRITY

Resurfaced social media posts and videos show Abdul El-Sayed using the phrase “defunding the police.” (Getty Images)

“Let me finish my answer, Manu,” El-Sayed replied. “I actually don’t think so. I think the vast majority of people would agree that they want to go home safely every night. I think the way we think about law enforcement is that we have to solve every social problem with someone with a gun, and when you talk to the people in law enforcement that I work very closely with, they’ll tell you they don’t want to participate in these escapes where they know someone is in mental crisis.”

“Perhaps instead of investing in war materiel for the police, we are investing in a secure retirement for them,” he continued. “And then instead of sending in a guy with a gun, we actually send in a trained mental health professional.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” El-Sayed added. “That’s how I defined it. And I think that’s exactly what people want. Now, if you want to keep talking about a particular buzzword that I was trying to define at the time, sure. But I think if we’re having a serious conversation about public safety, you’ll find that my perspective is exactly in line with what most reasonable people are talking about and want on this question.”

Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE ABDUL EL-sayed dodges question about whether he still supports defunding the police

Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed spent his campaign denying he wanted to defund the police, but in an unearthed clip he asked, “Do the police really need to use guns?” he asked. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

Prior to his campaign, El-Sayed had deleted several tweets criticizing law enforcement.

“Most major U.S. cities spend TOO MUCH on police departments to control poverty, and TOO LESS on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, and housing to eliminate poverty. The #Defund movement is about fixing this,” El-Sayed wrote in a post. June 2020 post In X, just a few weeks after the death of George Floyd.

Asked by CNN about the tweets from earlier this month, El-Sayed denied involvement in any effort to defund the police.

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“Judge me by my work, I funded the system because it had to be funded,” he said. “What we often talk about is funding or defunding. The question we’re not asking is what kind of system do we really want? I want us to invest in the types of interventions that actually protect people.”