CBS correspondent backtracks after defending a town-hall questioner
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Jan Crawford, CBS’s chief legal correspondent, removed a post that praised a man who challenged Abdul El-Sayed over the Muslim Brotherhood and apologized after a wave of inside-the-beltway criticism.
CBS News’ chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford apologized on X for a post that praised a man who questioned Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood during a town-hall meeting. Crawford said she deleted the original tweet because it violated CBS News standards and expressed regret for the post.
The deleted post had thanked the questioner, identified only as "Tommy," and described El-Sayed’s response as a "spectacular self-own" that "most people only dream about triggering." The exchange showed Tommy asking El-Sayed, "Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?" to which El-Sayed replied, "Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Why are you asking the question?" The dialogue continued with El-Sayed objecting to the implication of dual loyalties.
The tweet triggered backlash within CBS and among media observers. Jeremy Barr, a media reporter, noted internal criticism at CBS News, while journalist AJ Katz emphasized that Crawford’s role is not that of an opinion commentator. Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor described the language as "very strange editorializing" for a chief legal correspondent. CNN political commentator Karen Finney accused Crawford of spreading false, racist claims.
Crawford’s apology comes amid heightened scrutiny of CBS for alleged political bias following the October 2025 appointment of conservative commentator Bari Weiss as the network’s editor-in-chief, after Paramount Skydance acquired Weiss’s digital media outlet, The Free Press.