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Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed dismissed the ugly comments Vice President JD Vance made at a Michigan campaign rally on Monday as a “distraction,” and levied his own critiques of the Trump administration.
Vance said “there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” and criticized people who “see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others.” Vance also cited the Democrat’s ties to progressive streamer Hasan Piker and past statements El-Sayed has made about an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March.
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El-Sayed was asked about those comments during a Monday night CNN interview.
“Well, let me tell you what’s evil. Evil is the idea of starting wars when there is peace. Evil is the idea of stripping away people’s health care when they absolutely have no other option,” El-Sayed said. “What’s evil is to do that so that you can pass a tax cut for billionaires. What’s evil is putting a data center that people don’t want in their backyard despite them. What’s evil is corrupting yourself because you want a little bit more power.”
“And at the end of the day, this whole conversation, frankly, it’s a distraction,” El-Sayed added. “It’s a distraction from [what] Michiganders are really worried about. They’re worried that they can’t afford their gas because of this trade war with Canada, or because of this hot war with Iran that they got us into.”
El-Sayed also addressed his past response to the synagogue attack. At the time, he stressed that there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people,” but noted that “hurt people hurt people” and that violence was a “cycle.” El-Sayed also said that the perpetrator had lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
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His statement prompted pushback from some Jewish community leaders, who said that El-Sayed’s remarks appeared to provide a justification for the attack.
El-Sayed said he felt the need to issue an apology after hearing how those comments “caused a lot of pain,” and noted that expressing such regret underscored the difference between him and Trump.
“I’m big enough to apologize when I make mistakes,” El-Sayed said. “I understand that…it’s not what people wanted to hear at the time. You’ve got a president and a vice president right now that just double down every single time they get caught in an error for which all the rest of us have to pay.”
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