Vance Attacks El-Sayed During Campaign Speech In Michigan

Vice President JD Vance sharply criticized Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during a Thursday campaign rally for Republican nominee Mike Rogers, focusing on El-Sayed’s response to a March attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, near Detroit.

The attacker, 41-year-old Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, died by suicide after striking a security guard with his vehicle. Vance said the suspect had rammed his truck into the temple and opened fire while children were inside.

“This foreign-born jihadist, a literal terrorist, rammed his truck into a temple and opened fire, hoping to kill hundreds of innocent Jewish schoolchildren — our fellow Americans — inside,” Vance said.

Vance then criticized El-Sayed’s reported response to the attack.

“And you know what Abdul El-Sayed said when confronted with that? He said, and I quote, ‘Hurt people…hurt people,'” the vice president said.

“In a moment when he should have shown leadership, he decided to attack the people who were victimized by that crime, and he decided to show empathy for the people who committed that crime,” Vance added.

The rally promoted Republican candidates on Michigan’s November 3 ballot, but Vance devoted much of his speech to the Senate race, presenting Rogers as a more conventional choice than El-Sayed, whom he described as a democratic socialist.

“I’m not here primarily to talk about William Lawrence, I’m here to talk about the person who would become your next United States Senator,” Vance told the crowd before turning to Rogers and El-Sayed.

Rogers, a former congressman and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is making his second straight run for the Senate after narrowly losing to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024. The race became an open-seat contest after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters decided not to seek another term.

El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, won the Democratic nomination campaigning on proposals including Medicare for All. Critics have questioned his medical credentials, saying he is not board-certified and has not treated patients since medical school. He has also received support from figures including former President Barack Obama and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Vance portrayed El-Sayed as representative of a Democratic Party moving further left.

“The far left, the radicals of the Democratic Party, they’re on the ascent,” Vance said, adding that the party is “not my papaw’s Democratic Party.” He contrasted it with the parties led by John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.

Vance also used personal attacks, calling El-Sayed a “weasel” and criticizing his record, politics and background.

“You’re not going to always agree with him on every issue,” Vance said of Rogers, “but he’s a person who knows his job is to fight for you every single day.”

Vance called El-Sayed “one of the worst people running in the history of the United States of America.”

Republicans have also scrutinized reported family connections between El-Sayed’s relatives and the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has dismissed the accusation as “unserious” and “ridiculous.” The United States has designated specific Muslim Brotherhood chapters, including the Lebanese chapter as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, but that is distinct from designating the entire organization. state.gov

El-Sayed, who was born and raised in Michigan and is the son of Egyptian immigrants, responded at a campaign stop in Marquette.

“When you’ve got a name like mine you see the best of us, and too often sometimes you see the worst of us,” he said, arguing that some opponents were trying to divide voters.