Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed deleted 2019 tweet calling for Indigenous reparations

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed appeared to have deleted a tweet calling for reparations for Indigenous people on Thanksgiving, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.

"Just a reminder this #Thanksgiving. This country was built on the systematic annihilation of Indigenous Peoples, whose ancestors suffer some of the highest rates of homelessness, joblessness, and mortality today," El-Sayed wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thanksgiving in 2019. "We owe so much more than 'thanks.' Time for Reparations."

In a follow-up tweet, El-Sayed clarified that he meant "descendants" instead of ancestors.

Fox News Digital reached out to the El-Sayed campaign for comment.

Though El-Sayed has not frequently discussed the idea of reparations, video footage from the Michigan-based outlet The Gander featured El-Sayed discussing the importance of reparations for Black and Indigenous people.

"I believe we owe it to engage in reparations...There are so many ways in which we need to have a conversation about reparations. We need to invest in reparations. We need reparations in this country," El-Sayed said in a video posted on May 12.

El-Sayed was also accused of deleting several "defund the police" posts in November.

"Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty," El-Sayed wrote in a June 2020 post, just several weeks after the death of George Floyd. "Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about."

In a separate post, he wrote, "The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people."

El-Sayed's campaign has also been marked by several other controversies, such as campaigning with far-left, anti-Israel Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and suggesting political leaders do a better job understanding the motivations behind terrorists' actions.