The Free Press issues correction over false claim about El-Sayed
A community note on X stated that just 0.27 percent of all the words spoken by El-Sayed during his speech were in Arabic
The Free Press has issued a correction after one of its reporters falsely claimed Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed delivered his victory speech in Arabic.
The online outlet — founded by now CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss — published a video to X Wednesday in which reporter and host Maya Sulkin criticized Democrats for speaking languages other than English in their election night remarks.
“In their first speeches to the American public on the night they win power, they address Americans in foreign languages,” Sulkin said. “And no one in the Democratic Party seems to think that this is strange.”
Among those she singled out was El-Sayed, an epidemiologist andson of Egyptian immigrants, who won his Senate race Tuesday amid a blue wave that returned control of both the House and Senate to Democrats.
Sulkin played a clip of El-Sayed speaking in English at his victory celebration in Detroit, where he used two Arabic expressions: “Up until right about now, you might have noticed I always say ‘inshaAllah’ or ‘God willing.’ Tonight, we can turn that ‘inshaAllah’ into an ‘alhamdulillah!'” The latter expression means “praise be to God.”
Despite the clip showing El-Sayed speaking primarily in English, Sulkin characterized his remarks as a speech in Arabic.
“Okay, so that is the first Muslim senator in American history giving his victory speech in Detroit in Arabic,” she said, noting that El-Sayed also called Vice President JD Vance “habibi” and pronounced his full Arabic name.
Sulkin’s video, which drew over one million views on X, earned a community note.
“Apart from his own name spoken idiomatically with Arabic pronunciation, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed used four Arabic words in his victory speech, which represents 0.27% of the words he spoke,” the note read.
On Friday — two days after the video was posted — The Free Press issued a correction.
“This post and opinion video states that Abdul El-Sayed gave his acceptance speech in Arabic. That’s not accurate,” the outlet wrote on X. “In fact, he said a few phrases in Arabic, but the majority of his speech was in English. The Free Press regrets the error.”
Paramount Skydance, parent company of CBS News, acquired The Free Press in 2025 for a reported $150 million. Founded by Weiss, the publication is known for coverage that challenges progressive ideas and figures. Since taking the helm of CBS News, Weiss, a self-described “Zionist fanatic,” has faced accusations from some network insiders that she is steering coverage to favor the Trump administration and Israel.
“What’s being called ‘editorial interference’ is in reality the job description of an editor in chief,” she toldThe Wall Street Journal in June.
Earlier this week, another staffer at The Free Press admitted to using artificial intelligence to alter a photo taken at an election party hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party and attended by El-Sayed.
“So far at Abdul El-Sayed’s election night event I’ve spotted, Valentino heels, a Chanel bag, a Moncler jacket, Rolex watches, and a YSL bag among other designer items,” staff writer Olivia Reingold posted on X Tuesday.
Alongside the post, she shared a photo of a woman’s heels and handbag, appearing to suggest that attendees’ designer accessories were at odds with their progressive politics.
On Thursday, Vanity Fair reported that the image appeared to have been manipulated with AI.
Reingold did not reply to the outlet’s request for comment. But, on Thursday afternoon, she wrote on X that she had “used ChatGPT to brighten and sharpen an image of a woman in Valentino shoes and a Chanel bag.”
Sean Fischer, chief of staff at The Free Press, defended Reingold. “The odds of one being wrong when one tries to land a dig on Olivia are so astronomically high it's ridic,” he wrote on X. “U r the only fashion critic we need Olivia.”