"I know that there is some hesitancy, some skepticism, and there’s some just flat-out disdain for the person who is the senatorial candidate for the Democratic Party."
A black Michigan leader associated with the Rev. Al Sharpton slammed Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as untrustworthy, questioning his credibility among black voters.
Charles E. Williams II, president of the Michigan chapter of Sharpton's National Action Network, criticized El-Sayed in undercover footage obtained by The Midwesterner. The video was recorded outside a meeting at King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday.
“You can’t pluck the heart strings of people selling them all of the pie in the sky, that’s not realistic,” Williams said in the footage.
“You can tell people ‘Medicare for all’ and ‘money out of politics,’ how you going to do it? You ain’t no majorities. You ain’t got no executive branch. You put together legislation and you’re going to send that to Donald Trump, he going to sign that? No!” he continued. “So you just selling snake oil …. That’s the real issue that I have with the so-called Democratic socialists and super progressives anyway.”
“You selling wolf tickets … You will not get that across,” Williams added.
Williams said he had supported El-Sayed’s primary opponent, US Representative Haley Stevens.
“I’ve tried to be cordial to the party and make sure they don’t feel like I’m just completely off the farm or anything, but I’m not really happy … I supported the white lady over him!” he said.
He added that El-Sayed’s Muslim heritage had led to apprehension within the black community. Islamic tenets such as taqiyya allow Muslims to lie in cases where expressing one’s true beliefs could cause persecution or adversity.
“Him and I have some issues that we have had personally, telling me one thing and then doing another, which is a thing culturally that I have seen, I’ve had to deal with that community,” Williams said.
During the church meeting, Williams directly addressed the reluctance among members of the black community to support El-Sayed.
“I know that there is some hesitancy, some skepticism, and there’s some just flat-out disdain for the person who is the senatorial candidate for the Democratic Party,” he said. “Let’s be very clear, it ain’t just us. … White folks know how abusive the Arab community have been to — not just people in Detroit — they do it all over the place. … so we ain’t the only people who had to struggle with this.”
“Sad to have to paint the brush over Abdul but, you know, it’s a sticky situation,” he said. “I’m educating people to make sure that they go out and vote, but I ain’t going out to tell them to go vote Republican, either.”
El-Sayed has drawn much of his support among liberal voters in Michigan. During the primary, he performed well among predominantly white, affluent, and highly educated communities, while Stevens won support in black and working-class communities.
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