Vice President JD Vance told Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Monday to keep his wife’s name “the hell” out of his mouth, while speaking at a MAGA Inc. rally in suburban Detroit.
Vance headlined the event for the pro-Trump super PAC at Universal Contracting and Urban Tree Trimming, campaigning for Republican nominee Mike Rogers ahead of the November election.
The vice president worked through El-Sayed’s record before turning to second lady Usha Vance.
“My message to Abdul El-Sayed is: you can pal around with terrorist sympathizers, and you can say that America deserves 9/11, or you can empathize not with the children who were targeted at Temple Israel, but with the attacker,” Vance said. “These are all despicable things, but they’re all things that the people of Michigan will judge you on based on your record.”
“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,” he added.
Vance said El-Sayed has a habit of raising his family on the trail. He told the crowd he would never “disrespect somebody’s family by talking about another person’s wife, a person who isn’t on the ballot,” and said he was feeling protective because the couple has a five-week-old baby at home.
“You know, look, I don’t know who his wife is. I’m sure she’s a lovely person,” Vance said.
WATCH — JD Vance Calls Out Democrats Defending Sharia Law:
The vice president also said he had tried to work out what would drive a person to say and do the things El-Sayed has.
“And I realized 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. “And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a coalition fighting for every single person, whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white, black, or brown, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others.”
El-Sayed brought the second lady into the race last month, after Vance criticized his position on Sharia law at an Ohio rally and invoked his own grandfather.
“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…” El-Sayed wrote.
The Democrat nominee later claimed Vance was suggesting some Americans count as more American than others.
El-Sayed apologized Saturday to the Michigan Democratic Party’s Jewish caucus for saying “hurt people hurt people” in response to the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township.
“If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry. It was not what I intended to do,” he said.
