THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- Rolling Stone columnist Jack Crosbie argues that Republican attacks, particularly against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, define an exceptionally racist election cycle.
- Critics responding on X challenged the magazine’s framing, arguing that a candidate’s political positions and associations deserve scrutiny.
- The controversy includes El-Sayed’s 2012 support for Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi and reported donations from others whose names appeared on the same letter.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Rolling Stone has assessed the entire Republican midterm campaign and delivered its diagnosis: bigotry.
Campaign platforms? Candidate records? Specific questions about political endorsements? Please hold. The magazine has a sweeping moral verdict to announce.
In a commentary promoted on its social account October 27, Jack Crosbie describes the midterms as the “most racist election cycle in a generation” and says Donald Trump and MAGA have “nothing to run on but rank bigotry.”
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed figures prominently in the argument. Crosbie cites Trump’s mockery of his name, accusations connecting him to terrorism and a remark suggesting he would need a metal detector before entering the Senate.
The column also addresses rhetoric about Arabs and other ethnic groups, immigration enforcement and Republican attacks beyond Michigan. It packages those examples into an indictment of the party’s campaign.
Readers responding on X challenged that framing. Replies collected by Twitchy repeatedly argued that Islam is a religion and that scrutiny of political affiliations should not automatically be treated as racial hostility.
“Islam is not a race. You’ve become such a joke in the world of journalism,” wrote an account identified as Daniel.
The more consequential question is what happens to scrutiny of El-Sayed’s actual record once everything lands in the same rhetorical bucket.
There is a specific document behind part of the Michigan controversy.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed signed a 2012 statement supporting then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader. The statement urged him to “purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.”
That is a political position voters can examine. It does not require a seminar on the candidate’s religion to ask why his name appeared beneath it.
The Free Beacon subsequently reported that at least six people it identified as fellow signatories had contributed at least $25,850 across El-Sayed’s gubernatorial and Senate campaigns. One donor disputed having signed the letter, saying his name had been included without his agreement.
Those are questions about a document, donors and political judgment — the sort of subjects that ordinarily interest journalists when the candidate has an R beside his name.
El-Sayed has rejected allegations of Brotherhood membership. During his October 23 interview with Bret Baier, he said he had never belonged to the organization and accused Republican opponent Mike Rogers of turning his Muslim faith into a campaign issue.
Voters can evaluate Trump’s language and still expect answers about that letter. Rolling Stone’s commentary supplies plenty of outrage. The candidate’s record still deserves its own examination.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Rolling Stone Canada — Jack Crosbie’s full commentary
- Twitchy — Rolling Stone’s promotional post and reader responses
- Washington Free Beacon — The 2012 letter, campaign contributions and a donor’s dispute
- Fox News — El-Sayed’s October 23 interview with Bret Baier
- RealClearPolitics — Transcript of the Baier–El-Sayed exchange
- Daily BS related: El-Sayed tangles with Bret Baier in testy round: “just stop”
- Daily BS related: Trump’s Michigan rally remarks and the ensuing backlash
