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Senator-elect El-Sayed calls Vance a 'coward' over Iran war, vows no 'retribution'
Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed accused Vice President JD Vance on Thursday of running from the Iran war only after Republicans lost at the ballot box. In a round of TV interviews two days after his win, the Democrat also said standing up to President Trump works, but that politics "should never be about retribution."
Two days after winning Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed went after Vice President JD Vance, accusing him of distancing himself from President Donald Trump and the Iran war only after Republicans' historic midterm losses. In a round of TV interviews on Thursday with CNN, MS NOW's "Morning Joe" and ABC's "The View," the senator-elect also said he is willing to work with anyone, Trump included.
El-Sayed told CNN he is "looking forward to working together" with Vance, who as president of the Senate will swear him in in January. Then he turned on him.
"You see JD Vance now, he's sprinting as hard backwards as he can from this terrible, disastrous war in Iran," El-Sayed says in the CNN clip. "I'm like, now is not the time, my guy. It would have been eight months ago." He added: "You should have spoken up, but you never will because, of course, you are a coward who has decided that whatever Donald Trump says should go. Until, of course, Donald Trump is now a loser at the ballot box, and now you're trying to find a different way."
He is not the only Democrat pressing the point. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party will not let Vance "run away" from his record of supporting the war, and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin said Vance should stop trying to "cover" himself, The Hill reported.
"Stand up to him"
On "Morning Joe," El-Sayed argued that Tuesday's results had punctured the idea that Trump cannot be beaten.
"I think people have always seen Donald Trump as this big monster that's unbeatable," he says. "It's funny what happens when you stand up to people and you beat them. Turns out you just stand up to him, and he can read the tea leaves."
Trump went after El-Sayed repeatedly during the campaign. At an October rally in Michigan he called him a "jihadist" and said he would "have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate," Variety noted. On "The View," El-Sayed said: "They weren't attacking me. They were attacking the idea of an America big enough for me." He also renewed a challenge to the president: "I'll do a metal detector test all day because I have nothing to hide. Donald, if you're watching, a lie detector is still on the table." When co-host Sunny Hostin raised Sen. Ted Cruz calling him a "jihadist leprechaun," he joked: "I want a hat!"
"It's not about retribution"
El-Sayed said he is open to finding common ground with the White House. On "Morning Joe," he backed Trump's plan to end U.S. aid to Israel. "I agree with him on that," he said. "I'd love to work with him on doing that." Trump told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed "months ago" to halt the aid.
"I'm willing to work with anyone," El-Sayed says in this clip. "I think people see our politics as this game where you get retribution on the other side. It's not about retribution. It should never be about retribution. It's about enforcing the rule of law and, most importantly, delivering for the American public."
He also weighed in on the race to lead Senate Democrats. On "CNN News Central," he told Kate Bolduan that Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen would be "an amazing Senate majority leader," reaffirming his May endorsement over Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Newly elected Senate Democrats in Kansas, Illinois and Maine have said they will not back Schumer, according to The Hill.
El-Sayed, a physician and Detroit's former health commissioner, said Democrats' mandate is about affordability and who the economy works for.
"I would rather a system where we're not helping a billionaire make a second billion, but instead helping a kid get a good education at a good school so maybe they can make their first million someday," he says in this "Morning Joe" clip.
El-Sayed beat Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers 52% to 46% with 88% of ballots counted, according to the AP, and will be the first Muslim American in the Senate when he succeeds retiring Sen. Gary Peters. He told the AP that Michigan "rejected a hateful, spiteful campaign that had nothing to say about the issues and only wanted to point to my name and my face."
Videos: CNN, MS NOW via Clash Report. Photo: Conlan Houston / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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