Does Abdul El-Sayed take illegal foreign donations? Does Jocelyn Benson "work for the Ku Klux Klan"? Does the Michigan Democrat Party have huge problems going into Election Day on November 3? At least one of the answers to these questions has to be yes.
James O'Keefe dropped a bombshell or two last night in both the Senate and gubernatorial races in Michigan. One of his undercover journalists captured El-Sayed's regional field organizer Abdoul Beckwith spilling some secrets about the finances of the campaign, not to mention the integrity of the candidate. Beckwith told the undercover journalist that the El-Sayed campaign has been receiving illegal foreign donations for his Senate bid, and that everyone knew the funds violated election law (via Twitchy):
BREAKING NEWS: Abdul El-Sayed Campaign Official Reveals El-Sayed Receives Overseas Donations, Admits Foreign Contributions Are Illegal Under Federal Law, Warns Denouncing Hamas Could Cost Support “You know, he [Abdul El-Sayed] has people from overseas that donate to him...No it is not allowed." “He [Abdul El Sayed] can't just say, you know, no, I don't support Hamas, you know, I reject all of them, because he's going to lose the people that brought him up in the first place.” @AbdulElSayed @MikeRogersForMI
— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) October 19, 2026
We went undercover inside Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign, capturing conversations with Abdoul Beckwith, a regional field organizer for Abdul for Senate, discussing El-Sayed’s overseas campaign contributions, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Beckwith claimed El-Sayed receives donations from overseas, “You know, he [Abdul El Sayed] has people from overseas that donate to him.” When asked whether overseas donations were prohibited, Beckwith responded, “No it is not allowed,” before describing a hypothetical arrangement in which overseas money passes through a family member.
Beckwith said, “And then people overseas give money to him. And then he gives money to you. It's that type of thing.” He added, “Everybody does it!”
Under 52 U.S.C. § 30121, foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to federal campaigns. However, U.S. citizens living abroad and lawful permanent residents may legally contribute.
It wouldn't be the first time that foreign nationals funded a federal campaign. The 1996 Clinton/Gore reelection campaign got money from China, led mainly by Yah-Lin "Charlie" Trie but included several other figures that got charged and convicted. Al Gore personally led a fundraiser at a Buddhist temple that raised significant national-security concerns, taking in $140,000, some of which came from foreign sources. The Barack Obama campaign deliberately disabled the safeguard against foreign donations on their credit-card systems during his first campaign. Not everybody does it, but it does seem to be a pattern among Democrats.
And at any rate, it's still illegal. "Everybody does it" is the teenage alibi, and it has just as much legal standing as it ever had. If El-Sayed's campaign takes illegal foreign donations, the people involved can be prosecuted – and I suspect that Todd Blanche and Donald Trump won't hesitate to order an investigation.
Beckwith had a few other interesting things to say about El-Sayed, especially his contacts with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Beckwith explained that El-Sayed is trapped by those ties, and that he's doing a tightrope walk to keep the Islamists from abandoning him. Beckwith told the undercover reporter that the Islamists don't trust him to stay firm while surrounded by Joooooooooos:
During a car ride with our OMG undercover journalist, Beckwith suggested El-Sayed could lose support if he openly rejected Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, “He [Abdul El Sayed] can't just say, you know, no, I don't support Hamas, you know, I reject all of them, because he's going to lose the people that brought him up in the first place.” Beckwith continued, “He [El-Sayed] has to play the game. He has to play the role.”
When questioned about the Muslim Brotherhood, Beckwith claimed denouncing the organization could alienate Muslim supporters, stating: “So that's the whole thing. So when Abdul is going to denounce that [Muslim Brotherhood], they're [Muslims] going to think that he is siding with the genociders.”
Beckwith then made a bizarre claim about Jocelyn Benson:
Beckwith also made an allegation about Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson and stated "But I know Jocelyn works for the KKK." He repeated, "She works for the KKK. For the Ku Klux Klan."
Not long after O'Keefe published the video, the Michigan Democrat Party announced that Beckwith had been fired, a move that surprised no one. However, the El-Sayed campaign then announced that this "junior staffer has never been employed by the Abdul for Senate campaign," while denying Beckwith's claims:
Official Statement from @AbdulElSayed's Team https://t.co/mvqXPxnShN
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) October 19, 2026
Ahem. One cannot both be a "staffer" and a non-employee. "Staffer" means someone employed by an entity. It's possible that Beckwith got paid through either the state party or a PAC, but the latter would also have serious implications for the campaign if Beckwith coordinated with it while being paid off its books. The Federal Election Commission may have lots of reasons to open an investigation into Team El-Sayed and any PAC involved.
Michigan Democrats appear to be throwing spokes at the end of this radical campaign. Are the wheels coming off as a result? Stay tuned, because the news actually gets worse for Ohio Democrats today, which Beege has coming up in our next post.
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