Vice President JD Vance laid into Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Monday during a campaign rally held in the state, calling him “very, very evil” and an apologist “for the worst people in the world and America’s enemies all over the globe.”

Speaking at the event in Sterling Heights organized by a pro-Trump super PAC, Vance accused El-Sayed of sympathizing with the assailant who carried out a terrorist attack against a synagogue outside of Detroit in March and associating with the antisemitic Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who had claimed that America deserved 9/11.

“I realize that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” Vance said at the rally, where he touted the campaign of former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), El-Sayed’s opponent.

“It’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person — whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or Black or brown — but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others — and that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America,” he added in his speech.

Vance devoted significant attention to the violent terrorist attack targeting Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield, which El-Sayed had initially dismissed as representing a broader cycle of violence where “hurt people hurt people,” prompting widespread backlash from Jewish voters in Michigan.

The vice president’s focus on the synagogue attack indicates that El-Sayed’s remarks have reverberated well beyond the sizable Jewish community in the key battleground state.

Vance also said in his remarks he was “honored to be joined by the rabbi and some of the security guards of Temple Israel,” though Jewish Insider was unable to immediately confirm their individual involvement. (A Jewish community leader told JI that he knew of one rabbi who was attending the rally, but did not share a name.)

While El-Sayed voiced regret for his comments in meetings with Jewish Democrats over the weekend, Vance said that his response raised questions about what he is “going to do when he goes to Washington D.C.. when the cameras aren’t on.”

Vance called El-Sayed, who is Muslim, “a man who has sympathy and compassion for people who share his religion, but have nothing for people who don’t.”

“My message to Abdul El-Sayed is: You can pal around with terrorist sympathizers, and you can say that America deserved 9/11, or you could empathize not with the children who were targeted at Temple Israel, but with the attacker,” Vance said, before his comments took a personal turn.

He alluded to a recent social media post in which El-Sayed questioned if Vance would take his wife, Usha, who is Indian American, “back in time” to meet his late grandfather.

“Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul,” he shot back at the event, “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth.”

“Today, you have an opportunity to speak loudly,” he said to the crowd, “and in November you have an opportunity to speak much more loudly against the hatred that is on the rise in the United States of America. Reject Abdul El-Sayed.”

In a statement after the rally, El-Sayed said in response: “Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires. Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power.  

“Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida,” El-Sayed added. “We understand what’s at stake, and Michiganders will show you at the ballot box this November when we send Mike Rogers packing.”

Vance, who has faced skepticism from Jewish conservatives over his refusal to disavow far-right commentator Tucker Carlson as he mulls a 2028 presidential campaign, is slated to address members of the Jewish Republican Coalition in closed-door remarks tonight at its annual summit in Las Vegas.