Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul-Sayed turned to former President Barack Obama for help on the campaign trail, arguing for years that Obama’s presidency did not change the country for the better.
Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24, less than two weeks before Election Day, a major endorsement of a candidate who has made harsh assessments of Obama’s eight years in office.
The appearance was part of El-Sayed’s efforts to solidify Democratic support after narrowly defeating Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in the primary. El-Sayed recently appeared alongside former Vice President Kamala Harris and announced a campaign alongside other prominent left-wing Democrats.
But years before he sought Obama’s help, El-Sayed argued that the former president had failed to deliver on his promises, according to a CNN KFile review of his past statements.
In a 2012 Huffington Post article written after Obama was re-elected, El-Sayed said he voted for Obama but criticized him for failing to deliver on the “hope and change” promised during his first campaign.
“This leader has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and his list of failures goes on,” El-Sayed wrote. He concluded that Obama’s reelection was “not a victory” for the far left, calling it “our rock of choice in a tough place.”
He also attacked the Affordable Care Act, calling it a “watered-down reform that yields to the interests of the health care lobby.”
Five years later, while running for Michigan governor, El-Sayed refused to compare himself to Obama, telling Vox, “I disagree with President Obama on a lot of things.”
“I don’t think he’s strong enough on things like health care,” El-Sayed said. “I don’t think he’s strong enough on regulating the big banks. I don’t think he’s strong enough on campaign finance reform, and I don’t think he’s strong enough on immigration.”
El-Sayed also believes that economic benefits under Obama have benefited businesses more than ordinary Americans.
Then, in a 2018 interview with left-leaning podcast host Katie Halper, El-Sayed criticized Democrats after Halper brought up Obama’s response to the Flint water crisis.
“When Democrats buy into an ideology that we should all focus on the well-being of corporations rather than the well-being of real people, we make a mistake when we forget what suffering looks like,” El-Sayed said.
So voters can look at both sides and conclude: “You’re all the same because you both failed,” he argued.
By January 2020, El-Sayed was making a broader argument for Obama’s legacy.
“We’re going to continue to make the same mistakes we made over the past eight years under Barack Obama,” he told a panel at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. “As a country, eight years after Obama was elected in 2008, we are no better off than we were when he was elected. And I say that as someone who loved him deeply.”
Said acknowledged that Obama has accomplished important things, but he has failed to fundamentally change the economy and health care system.
“The structure of the economy has not changed under Barack Obama,” he said. “Really thinking about solutions that ensure our health care system is equitable and sustainable has not changed under Barack Obama.”
Now, El-Said is preparing to share the stage with the president, whose government he has claimed has failed to make the country “better.”
The Oct. 24 event coincides with the start of Michigan’s in-person early voting period. Obama is expected to drum up support for El-Sayed, gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson and other Democrats in a state he won twice.