JD Vance Blasts Abdul El-Sayed: 'The Guy Is a Bit of a Joke'

Sep 01, 2026 7:30 AM
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JD Vance Blasts Abdul El-Sayed: 'The Guy Is a Bit of a Joke'
Anna Moneymaker/Pool Photo via AP

Vice President JD Vance wasn't done with Abdul El-Sayed.

Hours after unloading on the Michigan Democrat Senate candidate for repeatedly dragging Second Lady Usha Vance and the Vance children into his attacks, the vice president used a Fox News interview to go after El-Sayed's politics too.

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RedState covered Vance's first response Monday, when he told El-Sayed to "keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth" after another round of personal shots at his family. El-Sayed had previously mocked Vance over his children and suggested Vance's late grandfather would have had a problem with his marriage to Usha Vance. At the same rally, Vance called El-Sayed "very evil." 

Vance wasn't exactly calmer when Fox News asked him about it later.

"I find the guy is a bit of a joke," Vance said, adding that El-Sayed is "always talking about my wife, my grandmother, various people in my family." Vance said attacks on him are part of the job. His family is another matter.

"If you want to attack me, feel free to attack me. I'm the vice president of the United States. But I don't know who his wife is. I'm sure she's a lovely person. Just keep families out of this stuff."

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Then Vance went political.

He said El-Sayed falls back on calling opponents white supremacists whenever they push back on something he says, specifically pointing to disputes over Sharia law. Asked directly whether he considers El-Sayed a socialist, Vance did not hesitate.

"He clearly is a socialist," Vance said.

But Vance's argument went beyond sticking El-Sayed with the socialist label. He accused the Democrat of building his political program around racial and ethnic preferences in education and employment, then attacking people who object.

"You look at his entire political program; it's fundamentally about handing out political favors, university education spots, jobs to his favored ethnic groups. And again, if you disagree with it, he'll call you names. He'll call you a white supremacist."

Vance went further, saying he sees El-Sayed's politics as sorting Americans into favored and disfavored racial groups rather than the class-based socialism usually associated with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

"This is not Bernie Sanders style socialism," Vance said. "This is good racial group, bad racial group."

He contrasted that with the GOP under President Donald Trump.

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"What I love about President Trump's Republican Party is everybody's welcome," Vance said.

That makes the Fox interview more than a replay of Vance's earlier warning. The first round was personal and direct: leave his wife and children alone. Hours later, Vance was tying El-Sayed's attacks on his family to a broader argument about how the Democrat views race, political power, and who government should favor.

El-Sayed spent months trying to get under Vance's skin in a Michigan Senate race Republicans are determined to flip. He finally did. Now the vice president is making it a campaign issue.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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