Vance Calls El-Sayed ‘Very, Very Evil’ At Macomb Rally”
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(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/31/2026) (STERLING HEIGHTS) – Vice President JD Vance said during a Macomb County campaign event today that there was "something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil," in addition to the event touting federal efforts to prevent non-English speakers from becoming commercial truckers.
Speaking about El-Sayed — the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee — Vance accused him of having sympathy and compassion for people who share his Muslim religion, "but have nothing for people who don't."
"A person who will apologize 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. "What I ask all of you to do is to reject it in November, reject the people who try to divide us, one race against the other, one religion against the other."
In response, El-Sayed said today that Michigan is "better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida."
"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," El-Sayed said in his statement. "Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power."
Today's comments by Vance echo Republicans' efforts to tie El-Sayed to worries that the movement protesting American ties with Israel has become home to antisemitism. A part of their strategy is to flag El-Sayed as hostile toward Israel and insufficiently sensitive to antisemitism. They also continue to condemn El-Sayed's relationship with controversial Twitch streamer, Hasan PIKER, who campaigned for him in the Democrats' primary.
After a March attack on the Temple Israel, a large synagogue in Oakland County teaching preschoolers at the time, El-Sayed was recorded saying "hurt people hurt people," referencing how the attacker lost family members in an Israeli airstrike beforehand.
But on Aug. 29, El-Sayed called those words a “mistake” to the Michigan Democratic Party's Jewish Caucus. He said that his commitment to the safety of Jewish children was the same as that to his own children. He added that 25 days into the general election, his opponents have run "probably the most anti-Muslim campaign in American history."
Today, Vance told the crowd of a couple of hundred that he was honored to be joined by Temple Israel's rabbi today and some of its security guards.
"That guy showed up at that synagogue and that school with a desire to kill a lot of children, and he killed precisely zero children because of the great security guards," Vance said.
Vance also brought up El-Sayed's comments about his wife, Usha Vance, an Indian American and practicing Hindu. Responding to comments Vance made saying he would love to go back in time and tell his pawpaw about El-Sayed and Sharia Law, El-Sayed asked if the Vice President would bring his wife back in time to meet his pawpaw as well.
Vance said that El-Sayed can "howl around with terrorist sympathizers," but he believes "the people of Michigan think it's kind of weird when you talk about another guy's wife." He noted that he's feeling especially protective, with Usha at home with their five-week-old baby.
"Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth," he said.
Vance visited an industrial corridor in Sterling Heights, rallying for Republicans' U.S. Senate nominee, second-time candidate Mike Rogers; gubernatorial candidate John James (R-Shelby Township) and Michael Bouchard Jr., who's running to be James' replacement in the 10th U.S. House race.
The Vice President was joined by others from Washington, D.C., as Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took stage.
Canada was not mentioned once during Vance's remarks. Democrats spent the morning attempting to target Vance and Michigan's Republican candidates over President Donald Trump's tariff policies on Canada and their reported impacts on costs.
Instead, Vance, Ferguson and Duffy talked about their efforts to keep non-English speakers from receiving commercial driver's licenses (CDL).
"In some ways, truckers are the modern cowboys. One-hundred-and-fifty-years ago, you had to drive cattle from Wyoming to California to deliver for the slaughter, but it's the truckers now who get our goods to market every single day, and they did it during COVID. They did it when nobody was supporting them," Vance said, claiming that 200,000 new trucking licenses went out to unqualified and mostly illegal immigrants in the country. "You cannot take an industry and bring in 200,000 low-wage porters and expect there to still be good jobs for American citizens who show up every day …. I know Mike Rogers and Mike Bouchard are going to fight for, every single day, for you in Washington."
He said American trucking jobs ought to go to Americans.
Ferguson said there's a crackdown on schools that have been handing out CDLs to folks who can't speak a word of English, with instructors who aren't licensed themselves. He said there was one school giving semi-truck driving lessons from inside a school bus.
"Just recently, just down the road in Indiana, a semi-driver got a license right here in Michigan, caused a horrible six-car pileup and killed two people. One of his victims was a 15-year-old boy and the other was a grandmother," Ferguson said. "The driver didn't speak a single word of English, not a single word. But some jerk here in Michigan armed him with a CDL and let him drive a 40-ton weapon."
He bashed El-Sayed's calls to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Duffy said a lot of illegal immigrants have entered the U.S., and President Joe Biden's administration allowed them to get driver's licenses.
"And they're not trained, and they don't speak English, and they've been hurting Americans on American roads, whether you're going to church on Sunday or driving to Walmart to get some food or some supplies," Duffy said. "We are not going to have it anymore."
In attendance today was 75-year-old Bill Pace, a Chesterfield resident who travels back and forth between Michigan and California to produce films.
Pace considers himself an El-Sayed supporter, liking how he prioritized ways to reduce medical debt as Wayne County's past health director. He was a quiet protester, carrying a sign reading "Trump Is A Serial Liar & You Are Complicit In His Lies."
He also believes that El-Sayed is a candidate with credibility and is not anti-Semitic.
"I've heard him speak. I really believe that what he's saying is sincere, natural, and I think he should have a chance. And of course, we all make mistakes, and he should be supportive of all races," Pace said. "But you look at this crowd here today. I think I counted three Black faces in the crowd. The Republican administration does not care about people who are having a difficult time getting groceries, buying gas and I think Abdul is somebody who understands that."
