Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
After Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed invoked Vice President JD Vance‘s wife Usha while mocking him over comments about his late grandfather, Vance hit back with a warning on Monday.
“Keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth,” Vance said while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers at a MAGA Inc. rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He also branded El-Sayed “very, very evil”, escalating an already bitter Senate race that could have bigger impact for control of the US Senate. Michigan is one of six Senate contests considered toss-ups by election forecasters, while a poll released Monday showed El-Sayed leading Republican candidate Mike Rogers by four points, with 10 per cent of voters still undecided.
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The comments land as Republicans intensify their attacks on El-Sayed, a progressive who narrowly defeated establishment-backed candidate Represnative Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary. Democrats, meanwhile, are seeking to use the race to defend their position in a key battleground state.
WHAT EL-SAYED SAID ABOUT USHA VANCE
The exchange began after Vance criticised El-Sayed over his past comments on Sharia law during a rally in Ohio. Vance said he wished he could go back in time and tell his late grandfather, whom he calls “Papaw”, about a politician who claims to represent working people but supports Sharia law and considers criticism of it to be white supremacy.
“That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party,” Vance said.
El-Sayed later responded to a video of Vance discussing his grandfather on X, bringing Vance’s wife, second lady Usha Vance, into the exchange. Usha is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was raised in a Hindu family.
“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no,” El-Sayed wrote on X.
Vance accused El-Sayed of having a “weird habit of talking about my family” before directly warning the Democratic candidate against mentioning his wife. “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,” Vance said.
JD VANCE CALLS EL-SAYED EVIL
Vance portrayed the Michigan race as a choice between a Republican candidate seeking to represent all voters and a Democrat he accused of putting the interests of one community above others.
“There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today, and it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation, fighting for every single person but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others,” Vance said.
He went on to suggest that El-Sayed showed sympathy towards people who share his religion than those who do not.
“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 the wrong faith,” Vance said. He urged Michigan voters to “reject it in November” and support Rogers.
EL-SAYED FIRES BACK AT VANCE
El-Sayed responded by turning Vance’s accusation of “evil” back on the Trump administration and Republicans.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida. We understand what’s at stake, and Michiganders will show you at the ballot box this November when we send Mike Rogers packing,” he added.
CONTROVERSY OVER COMMENTS ON ISRAEL AND SHARIA LAW
El-Sayed recently apologised for comments made after a March attack on a Michigan synagogue in which he said that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people”. The attacker had lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon a week before the Michigan attack. El-Sayed also condemned the synagogue attack and antisemitism more broadly at the time.
Republicans have also repeatedly attacked El-Sayed over comments concerning Sharia law and his association with Hasan Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer and prominent critic of Israel. Vance on Monday claimed El-Sayed had said that “America deserved 9/11” and accused him of empathising with the attacker in the synagogue shooting.
However, El-Sayed himself did not make the 9/11 remark. Piker, with whom El-Sayed campaigned during the Democratic primary, had previously claimed that the US “deserved” 9/11 before later calling the remark “inappropriate” and walking it back.
El-Sayed has sought to distance himself from the controversy, while remaining dismissive of Republican efforts to make Piker a central issue in the race.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
