Vance calls Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed 'evil' at campaign rally
El-Sayed faces Trump ally Mike Rogers in what has quickly become a senate race characterised by personal attacks and insults between the two.
During a campaign rally in Michigan, US Vice-President JD Vance characterized Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as "a very, very evil" individual, alleging that El-Sayed promotes division.
Vance also issued a stern warning to El-Sayed, stating, "keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth." This came after El-Sayed seemingly implied that Vance's late grandfather would not have approved of Second Lady Usha Vance, who is Hindu.
Later on Monday, El-Sayed retorted, accusing the Trump administration of pursuing "evil" policies and "starting wars abroad when there's peace."
The 41-year-old candidate is currently in a Senate race against Trump ally Mike Rogers, a contest that has rapidly become marked by personal attacks and insults from both sides.
Speaking at a rally for Rogers in a Detroit suburb on Monday night, Vance repeatedly portrayed El-Sayed, who is Muslim, as a divisive figure with little interest in fostering community unity.
"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 declared, further claiming that El-Sayed aimed to "destroy" the country.
The vice-president continued, "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."
During his primary campaign, El-Sayed appeared alongside controversial far-left influencer and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who once suggested that the US "deserved" the attacks in New York and Washington.
While El-Sayed never uttered those words and has since distanced himself from Piker, Vance repeatedly linked the two during his address.
In a subsequent interview with CNN on Monday, El-Sayed criticized Vance, attributing a series of "evil" policies to the vice-president during the Trump administration.
"Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires," El-Sayed asserted. "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."
He also sought to clarify his earlier remarks concerning the Vance family and the Second Lady, explaining that his intention was to illustrate that Vance "believes in a political philosophy that says that some people are somehow more American than others."
The Michigan Senate race is among the most prominent contests in the upcoming midterm elections and is unfolding in a crucial 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 indicates that El-Sayed holds a narrow four-point lead over Rogers, a former law enforcement officer with extensive political experience.