FAKING IT

In the “don’t believe what your eyes tell you” category, as AI becomes more prevalent, political candidates are turning to artificial intelligence to craft their own narratives, even if they are blatantly false. Birmingham attorney Kevin Kijewski, who is running for the GOP nomination for attorney general, must have thought he’d gain an upper hand with the MAGA base when he posted a very false video of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on social media, alleging to show El-Sayed lighting a chair on fire in the beautiful lobby of Detroit’s Guardian Building. In his initial post, Kijewski alleged that El-Sayed was as bad as the individual who assassinated the late Charlie Kirk. “Lighting Fires, Walking Away: Abdul El-Sayed posts the same false inflammatory rhetoric that radicalized Charlie Kirk’s killer, on the eve of Charlie’s funeral. No class, but not surprising - he just doesn’t care. Abdul sets fires and walks away, fanning division without taking any accountability,” he wrote on X. El-Sayed hit back against the spread of disinformation. “You’d think that someone running for attorney general might want to respect the law regarding the use of fake imagery designed to incite hatred,” he responded. Kijewski responded on social media that it was satire and “obvious fiction.” Sound familiar? Kijewski will face Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd and attorney Matt DePerno at the Michigan GOP convention for the AG nod.

Kevin Kijewski