US Vice-President JD Vance on Monday rebuked Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democratic senatorial nominee, saying his wife is off-limits and should be left out of his political jabs.
“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,” Mr Vance said at a PAC MAGA political rally to support Mike Rogers, the Republican senatorial candidate.
The vice-president’s remarks responded to Mr El-Sayed’s previous comment referencing Mr Vance’s wife, a Hindu of Indian descent and daughter of immigrants.
Last month, Mr Vance condemned Mr El-Sayed’s statement that referenced efforts to ban Shariah law as evidence of White supremacy. He said that he wished he could go back in time to tell his grandfather how the Democratic Party, he so loved in his lifetime, had become.
“I’d love to go back in time and tell my Papaw that there is a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticise it, you’re a White supremacist. That’s not my Papaw’s Democratic Party, my friends,” the vice-president said on August 21.
Mr El-Sayed fired back with a response that suggested Mr Vance’s father might have opposed his interracial marriage.
“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…,” Mr El-Sayed stated.
But Mr Vance on Monday warned Mr El-Sayed to leave his wife out of his political barbs.
He also called Mr El-Sayed, a Muslim and son of Egyptian immigrants, “very evil”, accusing him of showing sympathy towards a murderer who shares his Islamic faith while failing to understand an innocent child of another faith.
“When I see Abdul El-Sayed campaign around the state with somebody who said that America deserved 9/11, 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 apologise 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 their own faith,” Mr Vance said.
“And that is the root of this terrible evil, I believe, in the United States of America that is on the rise.”
Mr El-Sayed responded by attacking the Donald Trump administration, saying its policies are evil for making Americans pay more for groceries and gas while pursuing trade disputes and “actual war”.
“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,” Mr El-Sayed said in a statement.
“Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida.”