A field organizer working for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed got fired Monday after James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group dropped an undercover video showing him casually chatting about illegal overseas donations and explaining why his own candidate can’t bring himself to reject Hamas out loud.
The organizer, Abdoul Beckwith, told an undercover journalist posing as a volunteer that El-Sayed “has people from overseas that donate to him.” When the journalist asked whether that’s actually legal, Beckwith confirmed it is not, then described a system of routing money through family members or intermediaries, adding helpfully that “everybody does it.” Good to know, Abdoul.
Beckwith also explained the Hamas problem in blunt terms. He said El-Sayed “can’t just say, you know, no, I don’t support Hamas, you know, I reject all of them, because he’s going to lose the people that brought him up in the first place.” He made similar comments about the Muslim Brotherhood, and on top of all that, expressed worry that white and Jewish advisers might “hijack” the candidate’s positions. A busy guy, this organizer. El-Sayed campaign organizer video
The Michigan Democratic Party confirmed Beckwith is no longer employed with the coordinated campaign. The El-Sayed campaign called his comments “untrue,” “wildly misinformed,” and “not reflective of the campaign,” and insisted it fully complies with Federal Election Commission rules. Nothing says “we’re totally clean” quite like firing the guy the same day the video drops.
Under federal law, 52 U.S.C. § 30121, foreign nationals who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are barred from donating to federal campaigns, including through intermediaries. To be straight about it: no independent public evidence of illegal foreign contributions to the El-Sayed campaign has been verified. The claims come from one organizer, who later disputed how his remarks were characterized. Those are the facts, and they matter.
El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat and former public health official, beat Rep. Haley Stevens in a narrow primary and now faces Republican Mike Rogers in November for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. The race is considered competitive and could affect which party controls the Senate. Rogers has to be feeling pretty good right now.
Democrats spent years telling us O’Keefe’s videos were cheap gotcha journalism not worth anyone’s time. Funny how those same Democrats keep firing people the minute the footage lands. Beckwith can take comfort knowing he was just doing what “everybody does” and, unfortunately for him, got caught on camera saying so.
