El-Sayed responds, listing Trump policies he calls ‘evil’
US Vice-President JD Vance described Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as “a very, very evil” person at a campaign rally in suburban Detroit on Monday, warning him to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth” over comments El-Sayed made about Second Lady Usha Vance.
Speaking at a Monday night rally on behalf of Republican Mike Rogers, Vance accused El-Sayed of seeking to “destroy” the country. “I realise that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” Vance said.
The vice-president’s remarks followed comments El-Sayed made appearing to suggest that Vance’s late grandfather would not accept Usha Vance, who is Hindu. In a later CNN interview, El-Sayed said he had been trying to demonstrate that Vance “believes in a political philosophy that says that some people are somehow more American than others.”
El-Sayed, 41 and Muslim, responded to Vance’s “evil” characterization by listing Trump administration policies he said fit the same label. “Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires,” El-Sayed said. “Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power.”
During his Detroit rally remarks, Vance repeatedly linked El-Sayed to Hasan Piker, a left-wing Twitch streamer who once suggested that the US “deserved” the attacks in New York and Washington. El-Sayed never made such a statement and has distanced himself from Piker. “My message to Abdul El-Sayed is: You can pal around with terrorist sympathisers, and you can say that America deserved 9/11, or you could empathise not with the children who were targeted at Temple Israel, but with the attacker,” Vance said.
The Senate race between El-Sayed and Rogers — a former law enforcement officer with long experience in Michigan politics and an ally of President Donald Trump — has been characterized by personal attacks from both sides.
The Michigan Senate contest is among the most high-profile of the upcoming midterm elections. It takes place in a battleground state that former President Joe Biden won in 2020 and Donald Trump won in 2024. A survey released earlier this week by Michigan firm Epic-MRA suggests El-Sayed has a narrow four-point lead over Rogers in the general election matchup.