Matt Brooks
Role at the time: Chief executive officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, in a statement the coalition released in his name
Statement summary
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement on El-Sayed's Senate nomination that El-Sayed's explanation of why the Temple Israel attack happened placed the blame away from the attacker and on the Jews of West Bloomfield. Brooks also said El-Sayed later told supporters that saying it was a "risk," and that "It wasn't a risk, but it was a clear revelation."
“Michigan's Jewish community does not need this explained to them. They lived it. They watched the smoke rise over Walnut Lake Road in March. Then they watched Abdul El-Sayed reach for a microphone and offer his rationale for why the attack happened: not to blame the terrorist, but to place the blame 6,000 miles away and the burden on the Jews of West Bloomfield. Their own rabbi called it what it was: offensive. El-Sayed later told his own supporters that saying it was a 'risk.' It wasn't a risk, but it was a clear revelation.”
Why we used this label
The case asks about El-Sayed's cycle-of-violence framing after the Temple Israel attack. Brooks says El-Sayed offered a rationale for why the attack happened that placed the blame away from the attacker and on the Jews of West Bloomfield, and that El-Sayed later told supporters that saying it was a "risk," which Brooks called "a clear revelation." That criticizes the framing itself, so we labeled it Condemned.