Second Lady Usha Vance has responded with grace to remarks made by Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who used her background in an attempt to criticize Vice President JD Vance.
"I have to admit I kind of laughed," Usha Vance told Fox & Friends, in preview clips of an interview set to air Wednesday. She added that she has always felt comfortable with her husband's relatives in Ohio.
El-Sayed's comments came after Vice President Vance criticized the Senate candidate's stance on Sharia law. El-Sayed suggested that the practice would be foreign to JD Vance's late grandfather, referred to as "Papaw." "So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…" El-Sayed said, a remark interpreted as referencing Usha Vance's Indian heritage.
Usha Vance stated that while she never met her husband's grandparents, she has come to know and love the family they raised, including his mother and aunt. She described his aunt as a "second mother" and expressed confidence that JD Vance's grandparents would have been loving as well.
She recounted that her expectations of Ohio, where she had never visited before dating JD Vance, were exceeded. "It’s a culturally diverse place," she said. "The people have been so welcoming. Everyone has been so loving. They are my family. They treat me like their family."
Vice President Vance had previously addressed El-Sayed's comments while campaigning in Ohio. He pointed to El-Sayed's past remarks, which linked criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy, as an example of the Democratic party moving away from its working-class roots. JD Vance recalled his grandfather, a welder who voted Democrat and believed it was the "party of union men," stating, "I’d love to go back in time and tell my papa that there is a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it you’re a white supremacist. That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party."
JD Vance's grandparents passed away before he met Usha Vance at Yale Law School in 2010. He has often credited his grandfather, James Vance, as a significant stabilizing influence in his life.
Republican lawmakers have publicly supported the Vances in the wake of El-Sayed's remarks. Representative Brandon Gill of Texas questioned El-Sayed's assumptions about Midwestern grandparents.