JD Vance went to Michigan to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and ended up handing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed an irresistible opportunity to fire back.
And El-Sayed didn’t waste it.
Speaking at a rally in Marquette on Thursday, the Democratic Senate candidate brought up the vice president’s latest personal attack — and turned it into a punchline that sent the crowd into cheers.
Earlier that day, Vance had called El-Sayed a “little weasel” during a campaign appearance in Monroe, telling him to “shut his mouth” and show more gratitude toward the United States.
El-Sayed had a different animal in mind.
“You know, it’s funny,” he told the crowd. “J.D. Vance called me a little weasel today.”
Then came the response.
“I’m like, no, no, no. What you’re talking about is a fucking Wolverine!”
The audience erupted.
The joke carried a particularly sharp local edge. El-Sayed attended the University of Michigan, home of the Wolverines, while Vance graduated from Ohio State, whose Buckeyes are Michigan’s fiercest college football rivals.
“You can take your Buckeye and go shove it somewhere else,” El-Sayed added.
He wasn’t finished with the Ohio jokes.
El-Sayed mocked Vance for coming across state lines to campaign for Rogers, suggesting that a Michigan Republican needing an Ohio politician to help win over voters was hardly an impressive endorsement.
But beneath the football rivalry was a much more serious argument about patriotism and belonging.
Vance had questioned El-Sayed’s appreciation for America, claiming the Democrat showed contempt for the country that had given him opportunities.
El-Sayed, who was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, rejected the suggestion that the vice president had any authority to lecture him about loving his country.
“I got a front-row seat to what my life might have been had I not been born in America,” he told supporters.
“So don’t lecture me about America!”
He went on to describe a country where people have access to healthcare, unions are supported, religious freedom is protected, and election results are respected.
For El-Sayed, the dispute wasn’t simply about a crude insult. It was about who gets to define what it means to be American.
The exchange comes as Republicans intensify their attacks on El-Sayed in Michigan’s closely watched Senate race. Trump has also made unsupported allegations about the Democratic candidate’s supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, claims for which no evidence has been presented.
El-Sayed’s response in Marquette offered a striking contrast in tone: humor first, then a forceful defense of his identity, his state, and his vision for the country.
Vance came to Michigan with an insult. El-Sayed turned it into a rallying cry.
Watch the moment below.
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I wish Abdul had told Vance to fuck himself, that is American Trump says that all of the time./ and Trump was elected by Christians,
What were JD Vance’s former names and why did he change them?
You need to put “quotes” around “Christians.”