Marisa Kabas
Role at the time: Journalist and author of The Handbasket
Condemned
Statement summary
Kabas characterizes the question as an attempt to generate negative publicity rather than a good-faith inquiry about El-Sayed's beliefs.
“Then, on October 17th, Tommy asked his question in Caro, implying that El-Sayed had to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood simply because he’s a Muslim. Without knowing Tommy’s background and the effort by America Next to stoke controversy around El-Sayed’s public town halls, this might have seemed like an honest question, asked in good faith. Instead, it quickly appeared to be an inorganic attempt to generate negative publicity for El-Sayed.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Marisa Kabas criticizes the El-Sayed town-hall question · Marisa KabasBylined article
The author presents reporting and an argument about the question at the Caro town hall. Judgments and allegations in the piece are the author's.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Kabas argues that the question implies El-Sayed must disavow the group because he is Muslim and characterizes it as a publicity attempt rather than a good-faith inquiry.