A prominent black Michigan leader was caught on camera calling Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a "snake oil" salesman — and the footage exposes the growing rift between the Democratic Party's identity-politics pitch and the working-class voters it claims to represent.
Charles E. Williams II, president of the Michigan chapter of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, didn't mince words in undercover video obtained by The Midwesterner, recorded outside a meeting at King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit. His frustration reveals what happens when a party promises revolution it can't deliver.
"You can't pluck the heart strings of people selling them all of the pie in the sky, that's not realistic," Williams said. "You can tell people 'Medicare for all' and 'money out of politics,' how you going to do it? You ain't no majorities. You ain't got no executive branch. You put together legislation and you're going to send that to Donald Trump, he going to sign that? No! So you just selling snake oil."
Williams backed El-Sayed's primary opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens — and wasn't shy about it. "I supported the white lady over him!" he said.
The primary results tell the story the national press won't: El-Sayed won predominantly white, affluent, highly educated communities. Stevens won black and working-class districts. The candidate running on progressive populism lost the working-class vote and won the upscale liberal vote. That's not a coalition; that's a class split.
Williams also raised cultural concerns about El-Sayed's Muslim heritage, citing the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya — which permits deception under persecution — and pointed to tensions between Detroit's black and Arab communities. "White folks know how abusive the Arab community have been to — not just people in Detroit — they do it all over the place," he said. "Sad to have to paint the brush over Abdul but, you know, it's a sticky situation."
Meanwhile, the establishment is singing a different tune. Sen. Raphael Warnock took to CNN's "State of the Union" to declare El-Sayed "the embodiment of the American dream," praising his interfaith outreach with rabbis, imams, and pastors. Breitbart reported Warnock's full-throated endorsement: "I think he will bring the people of Michigan together."
The gap between what Warnock says on CNN and what Williams says in a church parking lot is the gap between the Democratic Party's brand and its reality. One sells the coalition; the other lives in it.
Williams made clear he isn't telling anyone to vote Republican — but he also isn't selling what El-Sayed's offering. "I'm educating people to make sure they go out and vote," he said. The question is whether the Democratic Party can keep taking that vote for granted when its own organizers are the ones calling out the grift.
