BS BULLETIN:
- Abdul El-Sayed dragged Usha Vance into his escalating feud with Vice President JD Vance after Vance hammered the Michigan Democrat over his past Sharia-law comments.
- Critics accused El-Sayed of racism and sexism after he suggested Usha might not have been welcomed by Vance’s “Papaw.”
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed was challenged over his own words about Sharia law.
His response? Bring JD Vance’s wife into it.
The latest flare-up began after Vice President JD Vance spoke Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant in Ohio and used El-Sayed as an example of just how far he believes the Democratic Party has wandered from its old working-class base.
Vance recalled his grandfather — “Papaw,” a union steelworker — and El-Sayed’s past comments tying criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy.
“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 Sharia law, but if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist,” Vance said. “That’s not my Papaw’s Democrat Party, my friends.”
El-Sayed could have answered the Sharia argument directly. Instead, he posted this: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…”
Usha Vance, of course, is Indian-American and the daughter of Indian immigrants. Critics immediately interpreted the crack as suggesting that Vance’s white, working-class grandfather would have had a problem with his grandson bringing home an Indian-American woman. Fox News reported that El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to its request to explain precisely what he meant.
Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill pounced. “Why does Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed just assume that all White midwestern grandparents are racist?” Commentator Ryan Girdusky added: “If you’re a rural White American living in Michigan, just remember El-Sayed believes you’re a racist.”
Journalist Emily Schrader was considerably less diplomatic: “You are a racist creep.”
And this wasn’t El-Sayed’s only weekend excursion into other politicians’ relationships.
He also aimed a post at White House aide Natalie Harp, writing, “Natalie, I think he’s had a little too much iPad for the week. He needs his rest,” amid renewed left-wing speculation about Harp and President Trump.
Former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon noticed the pattern. “He goes after Usha. He goes after Natalie [Harp]. This coward picks on women who are not in his fight. Imagine how he would treat female staffers in the halls of Congress,” Dixon said.
And there is history here. El-Sayed previously brought Usha and the Vances’ children into his attacks on the vice president, saying during an April podcast appearance that Vance has “Brown kids” whom he supposedly considers less American and telling Usha to “get out.”
By Sunday, El-Sayed was offering his own explanation. Appearing with Al Sharpton on MS NOW, he argued that Vance’s “Papaw” remarks were really an attempt to portray him as less American because of his race and Muslim faith. “He thinks that there are some people who are more American than others because they can point to their Papaw who was here earlier,” El-Sayed said. Then he returned to Usha’s family. “How do you look your parents-in-law in the eye and say that somehow they’re less American than you are?” he asked, arguing that was what Vance was implying. El-Sayed also insisted the campaign should instead be about groceries, gas prices and health care.
There is one little problem with that defense: Vance’s original remarks were about El-Sayed’s political views and the transformation of the Democratic Party. Vance said nothing about Usha, his in-laws or Indian-Americans.
El-Sayed supplied that part himself.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Fox News — El-Sayed under fire after taking aim at Usha Vance and Trump aide
- RealClearPolitics — El-Sayed responds to Vance and invokes his parents-in-law
- RealClearPolitics — Vance unloads on El-Sayed over Sharia remarks
- New York Post — Vance: “That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party”
- Legal Insurrection — El-Sayed’s previous comments about Usha Vance and the Vance children
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Being from the great state of Michigan, sure, I’m glad I no longer live there, since they have put up such an a–hole to run for the Senate! This ElSaid POS should have been run out of town, tarred and feathered a long time ago! What a racist TURD! I hope and pray that there are enough true and tried Americans in Michigan who will vote against this POS! What is wrong with you people, wanting something like this for the Senate???