Vice President JD Vance reignited a public feud with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during his speech at the Republican National Midterm Convention on Thursday.
Vance accused El-Sayed of mocking his grandfather and making a disparaging remark about his wife, Usha Vance, who is of Indian-American Hindu heritage. Vance recounted El-Sayed's alleged comments, stating, “He asked, mockingly, whether I’d bring Usha with me ‘back in time to meet Papaw.’… Abdul looks at him, sees the color of his skin, and decides that he could never have loved my wife.”
The vice president emphasized that El-Sayed, who was raised by white step-grandparents, should understand familial bonds. Vance asserted that El-Sayed’s remarks indicated a belief that someone with his grandfather's background could not have loved someone of Usha Vance's ethnicity.
“This is who the Democrats are now,” Vance stated. “They aren’t the party of higher taxes and a little more regulation. They aren’t the party of FDR, or JFK, or even Bill Clinton. No—the Democrats are the party of hatred.” He further characterized the party as one that “despises America, and the people who built it” and is capable of sympathy for 9/11 terrorists while simultaneously claiming that individuals with names like James Vance are incapable of loving people with names like Usha.
The current exchange follows an incident in August when Vance told El-Sayed to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth” after El-Sayed suggested Vance’s late grandfather might have disapproved of his marriage to Usha Vance.