Abdul El-Sayed fires back after JD Vance calls him 'very evil' over comments about his family

WASHINGTON, DC: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed didn’t hold back after Vice President JD Vance called him "very, very evil" during a rally in Sterling Heights on Monday, August 31.

Instead of ignoring the insult, El-Sayed shot back and spelled out what he thinks real evil looks like: starting wars, slashing health care, and handing tax breaks to billionaires, decisions he squarely blamed on the Trump administration. "What’s evil is corrupting yourself because you want a little bit more power," he said during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.  

This latest clash came after Vance went after El-Sayed for his public statements and acquaintances, especially his connection to political commentator and streamer Hasan Piker. Piker has taken heat himself for remarks about the September 11 attacks, and Vance used those controversies in his attacks on El-Sayed.

"Keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth, because she's way out of your league," Vance said in response to El-Sayed's comments about his wife, Usha Vance.

Abdul El-Sayed pushes back on JD Vance's Papaw comments

El-Sayed answered by zeroing in on how Vance brought up his late grandfather, “Papaw,” as Vance calls him in his memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy' and elsewhere. 

The Democrat pressed Vance on why he’d mention a family member who’s passed away while making a point about him.

"Vance said he wanted to have a conversation about me with his Papaw, a person that I understand has long since passed. May he rest in peace. But why would you invoke your long-since-passed grandfather to make an argument about me if you're not trying to take us back to a time when people like me were less than normal?" El-Sayed asked. 

He took the moment to push on something bigger: Who really belongs in the American story Vance keeps talking about? Who gets left out? He argued Vance’s comment raised tough questions about how inclusive that vision truly is.

"That raises the question about who else might not be normal in that kind of an America," the 41-year-old said. "I believe in an America where any of us, me, his wife, any of us with different-colored skin, or who pray different ways, can be just as American as JD and his Papaw." 

When asked whether he believed spouses should be off-limits in political attacks, El-Sayed said, "I'd rather not talk about spouses at all." 

JD Vance calls Abdul El-Sayed ‘evil’

Vance, in his speech at a campaign rally in Sterling Heights on Monday, said about El-Sayed: “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. That is the root of this terrible evil, I believe, in the United States of America that is on the rise.”

"My message to Abdul El-Sayed is, you can pal around with te**orist 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,” the vice presdient continued, "These are all despicable things, but they are all things that the people of Michigan will judge you on based on your record."

“But I actually think that the people of Michigan think it's kind of weird when you talk about another guy's wife," Vance said. "I think the people of Michigan would like you to talk about the public policy ideas you have to make their lives better." 

Later, El-Sayed accused Vance of using coded language on the subject while denying any intent to do so when challenged directly, saying, "He likes to dog-whistle about these things, but when you actually call him out on it, he acts like he would never bring anything like that into our political conversation despite he and his boss doing that every single day."