Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Saturday slammed Vice President JD Vance for distorting his old comments on Sharia law in what marked another instance of conservatives fixating on his Muslim identity.
Vance, moments after mispronouncing El-Sayed’s name during a rally at an Ohio steel plant on Friday, claimed the progressive has argued that “criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy.”
(Note: El-Sayed, in a 2022 speech, addressed Oklahomans approving a 2010 measure to bar state courts from considering Sharia law in its decisions, arguing the “forces” behind the ban were motivated by white supremacy. A federal judge in Oklahoma struck down the ban in 2013, finding it unconstitutional.)
“I’d love to go back in time and tell my papaw that there’s a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have but, if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist,” said Vance while warping El-Sayed’s comments.
El-Sayed, in an appearance on MS NOW, said Vance was suggesting that some people are “more American than others because they can point to their papaw who was here earlier.”
“And my question to him is simply, ’Why is it then, how do you look your parents-in-law in the eye and say that somehow they’re less American than you are? Because that’s what he’s implying there.”
El-Sayed — who was born in the U.S. to Egyptian immigrants — was referring to second lady Usha Vance’s parents, both of whom were born in India and immigrated to the U.S. before the birth of their daughter.
The progressive’s primary win earlier this month sparked a rise in anti-Muslim posts from conservatives, per a Washington Post analysis shared on Sunday.
He holds a slim lead over his opponent, ex-Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), among likely voters in November’s election, according to the results of a recent AARP poll.
Later in his MS NOW appearance, El-Sayed looked at what he called the “bigger picture” outside the veep’s attacks toward him.
“This is about trying to change the channel,” said the progressive, arguing that Vance is attempting to distract from rising costs and other “issues” Americans discuss at the kitchen table.
He continued, “So if you don’t want to talk about what you’re doing, that’s fine, but I encourage you to leave my name and my background out of it.”