Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance has “negative charisma,” firing back after Vance mocked him at a rally days earlier.
The exchange started Monday, when Vance appeared at a rally in Kansas and took aim at El-Sayed directly. “Just listen to them in their own words. We’re going to get to Kansas in a second. But you know this guy, Abdul El-Sayed, the clown running for Senate in Michigan? This guy is a content machine for the Republican party. He has said that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy,” Vance told the crowd.
El-Sayed responded Wednesday on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” after co-host Luke Russert played the clip for him. “Look, I think if you’re actively trying to go after Sharia law, it’s because you’re trying to change the conversation,” El-Sayed said. “Now, I know JD Vance went to Ohio State. It’s a subpar university and they didn’t teach geography. He was in Kansas to talk about a candidate in Michigan, seems a little bit confused, but that’s JD Vance.”
El-Sayed then turned to the economy, arguing that attacks on his name and religion are a distraction from pocketbook issues. “At the end of the day, me, my name, my faith, they’re not raising the price of your gas. They’re not raising the price of your groceries. They’re not the reason that you can’t afford a new home. They’re not the reason you can’t see a doctor in the United States. That’s Donald Trump, that’s JD Vance, that’s people like Mike Rogers,” he said. “And every day we remind them is a day that we are winning these races. So go ahead, JD keep doing it.”
“In Michigan, people aren’t talking about all these national stories. They’re not trying to talk about the ridiculous things that JD Vance, with his negative charisma, wants to talk about.”
El-Sayed is running for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s open Senate race. Mike Rogers, whom El-Sayed named alongside Trump and Vance, is a Republican who has run for the same seat in past cycles.
