Vice President JD Vance blasted Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed while campaigning for Republican candidate Mike Rogers in the Wolverine State on Thursday.
Speaking in Monroe, Michigan, Vance said El Sayed “is one of the craziest, one of the most far-left, and one of the most radical people running for high office in the history of the United States of America.”
He contended that El-Sayed does not care about the people of Monroe and detests America’s history.
“He calls our nation irredeemably racist. He calls the United States of America genocidal, and he hates the people who built it, people like my grandfather, who was for 40 years a union welder at the Middletown Works of Armco Steel in Ohio,” Vance said.
“Abdul says that men like this, men like you, men like your father and grandfather and your son, were bigots,” he added.
He then highlighted that El Sayed attacked his late grandfather. In a post on X in August, El-Sayed suggested that Vance would not have brought second lady Usha Vance back in time to meet his grandfather if given the opportunity.
“He said my papaw, one of the greatest men that I have ever known, the man who raised me when my own mom and dad struggled … was incapable of loving my darling wife and our amazing second lady for the simple fact that he was white and she is not,” Vance said.
“Abdul said this despite being raised in part by his own white step-grandfathers, and I can only imagine if he says that in public what he says about you when the cameras aren’t on,” Vance added.
The vice president also contended that El-Sayed created a “fictitious background for himself” because he is “ashamed” to actually be a Michigander.
“He invented a totally fictitious background for himself, not as a Michigander born an hour north of where we stand today, but as a foreigner who came here from 6,000 miles away,” he said.
“What does it say about your love of your community when you literally lie? You are so ashamed of this place that you lie about where you came from,” he added.
Vance also called out El-Sayed for showing empathy for the perpetrator who targeted Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Authorities have identified Ayman Mohammad Ghazali as the attacker who died at the scene, and believe it was a Hezbollah-inspired terrorist attack.
“Now, this foreign-born jihadist, a literal terrorist, ran his truck into the temple and opened fire, hoping to kill hundreds of innocent Jewish schoolchildren, our fellow Americans inside,” Vance said. “And do you know what Abdul El Sayed said when confronted with that? He said, and I quote, ‘Hurt people, hurt people.'”
“In a moment where he should show leadership, he decided to attack the people who were victimized by that crime, and he decided to show empathy for the people who were committing that crime,” he added.
Vance drew a stark contrast between El-Sayed and Rogers.
“Mike cares about the simple things, the things that should be easy. He cares about lower costs. He cares about lower taxes. He cares about bringing good jobs into the state of Michigan, and of course, he cares about our young people being able to afford a home and the community that made them who they are,” Vance told the crowd.
“His view is that we must fight for every citizen of this great state, regardless of color or creed, regardless of where you came from and what you look like, because at the end of the day, Mike Rogers knows that he has one job … It’s to put Michigan first every single day,” he continued.