Vance casts El-Sayed as ‘evil’ and tells him to ‘keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth’

By Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance said in Michigan on Monday that “there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very, evil,” arguing that the state’s Democratic Senate nominee is symptomatic of a growing trend in America of fighting “for one group at the expense of others.”

His sharp criticism of El-Sayed — which included telling the Democrat to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth” — underscored how heated the rhetoric has become in this competitive Senate race, which could be critical in the larger battle for control of the chamber.

Vance cast the choice between El-Sayed and GOP nominee Mike Rogers as about who would fight for all Michiganders — even if they don’t agree 100% with Rogers — while obliquely suggesting that El-Sayed cared more about members of the Muslim community than other voters.

“There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today, and it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation, fighting for every single person … but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others,” Vance said at a rally in Sterling Heights hosted by MAGA Inc., a super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump.

“What I see is a man who has sympathy and compassion for people who share his religion, but have nothing for people who don’t. A person who will apologize for a murderer so long as he looks the right way, but will not understand the plight of an innocent child if that person has the wrong faith,” Vance said, calling on voters to “reject it in November” and back Rogers.

El-Sayed on Monday pushed back on Vance’s comments, casting the Trump administration and Republicans as the ones perpetrating evil.

“Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires. 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 said in a statement.

“Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida. We understand what’s at stake, and Michiganders will show you at the ballot box this November when we send Mike Rogers packing,” he added.

El-Sayed recently apologized for saying after a March attack on a Michigan synagogue that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.” (The attacker lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon a week before the Michigan attack.) At the time, El-Sayed also condemned the synagogue attack and antisemitism broadly.

Vance’s speech became more personal as he took aim at recent comments from El-Sayed that some viewed as racist. Earlier this month, the Democratic candidate responded to a clip of Vance at a rally referencing his late grandfather, “Papaw,” by mentioning second lady Usha Vance, who is the child of Indian immigrants and was raised Hindu.

“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…” El-Sayed wrote on X.

Vance on Monday said El-Sayed has a “weird habit of talking about my family,” going on to lob a series of misleading claims at the Democrat — a pattern that’s emerged from the GOP since El-Sayed won the Senate nomination in early August, with some Republicans resorting to overtly Islamophobic attacks.

“My message to Abdul El-Sayed is: You can pal around with terrorist sympathizers, and you can say that America deserved 9/11, or you could empathize not with the children who were targeted at Temple Israel, but with the attacker,” Vance said.

He continued: “But whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth, because she’s way out of your league.”

While El-Sayed campaigned during the primary with Hasan Piker — a far-left Twitch streamer who once suggested that the country “deserved” 9/11 — El-Sayed did not say that. Piker has since walked back the remark, saying it was “inappropriate,” and El-Sayed has downplayed his relationship with him.

Still, at a state party convention over the weekend, El-Sayed remained largely dismissive about concerns over his relationship with Piker, a strident critic of Israel, telling reporters, “This is not a campaign that is about a single streamer in California.”

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CNN’s Eric Bradner and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.