Abby Phillip told America that Abdul El Sayed never wanted to defund the police.
CNN's own reporters had already destroyed that claim in print weeks earlier.
What happened next on live television is the kind of moment CNN will spend all week pretending never aired.
Abby Phillip Denies What CNN's Own Reporters Already Proved
On Wednesday's broadcast of CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip made a claim that should have never survived a commercial break.
Former Trump official Caroline Sunshine said Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El Sayed wants to defund the police.
Phillip cut her off cold.
"I will say El Sayed didn't – does not support defunding the police," Phillip said.
Sunshine pushed back, reminding Phillip that El Sayed has said exactly that before and is now running from it.
Phillip doubled down anyway.
She told her own viewers, on her own network, that El Sayed has said he doesn't support defunding the police.
There was one small problem.
CNN's own investigative unit had already fact checked that claim into the ground.
CNN's KFile Caught El Sayed on Tape Saying the Words Phillip Denied He Ever Said
Just weeks before Phillip's defense of El Sayed, CNN's own KFile team dug through years of his old interviews and social media posts.
They found him saying it outright.
"We do need to defund the police," El Sayed said in a 2020 radio interview, according to CNN's own reporting.
CNN's review turned up roughly a dozen posts where El Sayed backed the defund movement by name, along with interviews stretching from 2020 into 2021 where he pushed what he called the "refund movement."
That is not a slip of the tongue.
That is a governing philosophy he repeated for years before Michigan voters started paying attention.
Former New York City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli said it plainly during the same segment Phillip anchored.
"CNN's reporting is saying that he has called to defund the police, despite his own denials of doing so," Borelli said.
He called it exactly what it is.
Borelli said El Sayed is a candidate trying to outrun his own record.
Phillip's response to getting cornered by her own network's reporting was not to check the record.
It was to change the subject.
She asked whether Republicans were missing "the real issue" by bringing up 2020 at all.
El Sayed Just Won the Democratic Nomination for a Senate Seat Republicans Need
This is not some fringe activist Phillip was covering for.
Abdul El Sayed just won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, beating Rep. Haley Stevens after a race that saw roughly 65 million dollars in outside spending try to stop him.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens in a last-minute attempt to block him.
It failed.
El Sayed is now the Democratic nominee for a seat Republican Mike Rogers is contesting in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.
He is about to be on a debate stage against a Republican nominee in a state Trump needs to hold the Senate.
And the national anchor tasked with covering that race just told her audience he never held the position CNN's own journalists proved he held.
Democrats Nationwide Are Running From the Same Slogan They Once Cheered
El Sayed is not the only one hoping voters have amnesia.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, Democratic candidates across the country are grappling with old "defund the police" positions as they head into the midterms, with many trying to reframe or bury statements made during the George Floyd protests.
Democratic leaders are openly worried the label will sink their chances again.
Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong is facing the same problem in her bid for governor.
The pattern is not complicated.
Candidates spent 2020 chasing activist approval, then spent every year since trying to make voters forget they did it.
Abby Phillip did not misspeak on live television.
She ran interference for that entire strategy, and CNN's own KFile was the one holding the receipts.
This Fires Up Michigan Voters CNN Just Insulted
Michigan voters over 65 broke for Haley Stevens by double digits in the primary.
Those are the same voters CNN just told, on national television, that they misremembered what El Sayed actually said.
They did not misremember anything.
CNN's own reporters wrote it down.
Abby Phillip had the printout in her own newsroom and looked into a camera anyway.
Come November, Michigan voters get to decide whether a nominee who spent years pushing to defund their police departments deserves a promotion to the United States Senate.
CNN just showed America exactly how hard its own anchors will work to help him get there.
Sources:
- Ian Hanchett, "CNN's Phillip Says El-Sayed Doesn't Support Defunding the Police, Is Fact-Checked by CNN Report," Breitbart, August 6, 2026.
- CNN Staff, "'We do need to defund the police': 2020 interviews undermine Abdul El-Sayed's claim he never advocated for unpopular movement," CNN, July 7, 2026.
- Matt Brown, Anthony Izaguirre and Scott Bauer, "Democratic candidates grapple with past stances on defunding the police ahead of key midterm races," Associated Press, July 31, 2026.
- Henry J. Gomez, "Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, notching a Midwest victory for the left," NBC News, August 5, 2026.