Vice President JD Vance condemned Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed’s handling of the Temple Israel synagogue attack during a Michigan rally, urging voters to reject division and those who defend attackers over victims.
On Monday in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Vice President JD Vance stood before supporters at a MAGA Inc.-hosted campaign rally and delivered a pointed rebuke of Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed. Vance was joined by Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, GOP gubernatorial nominee John James, an unnamed rabbi from Temple Israel, and members of the synagogue’s security team. The focus: el Sayed’s comments following the March 12 attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Vance did not hold back as he described the threat posed by leaders who, in his view, place group loyalties above national unity. “There’s something about Abdul el Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today, and it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a 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,” Vance said. He warned that such thinking “is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America.”
The attack at Temple Israel occurred when Lebanese immigrant Ayman Mohamad Ghazali drove through the synagogue’s halls with a rifle and explosives in his vehicle. Ghazali was killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement. The source reports that dozens of children were present at the school at the time, but thanks to the synagogue’s internal security team, no children were harmed. The FBI described the assault as Hezbollah-inspired and noted Ghazali had consumed Hezbollah-related content online. Officials said Ghazali had lost family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. Minutes before the attack, he sent a video to his sister in which he said, “This is the largest gathering place for Israelis in the state of Michigan in the United States,” and pledged, “I have booby-trapped the car. I will forcefully enter and start shooting at them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can.”
El Sayed’s public response after the attack drew swift backlash. While he condemned the violence, he also spoke about Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, saying, “We ought to grieve for the children who are dying at the hands of airstrikes.” He later acknowledged his initial response was a mistake, telling the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, “If I had the opportunity to take it back, I would take it all the way back,” and admitting, “I should have issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.” Addressing concerns that his comments justified the attack, el Sayed said, “For folks who felt like my comments were justifying of an act of domestic terrorism, I did not intend it that way.”
Vance seized on these remarks to draw a clear line, urging Michiganders to stand against what he called efforts to divide Americans by race or religion. “When you have people who start to say my ethnic group deserves something and yours doesn’t, or that ethnic group is good and this other ethnic group is bad, that is how you erode the very foundations of commonality and common citizenship that we need to continue to have the United States be the most powerful and prosperous nation anywhere in the world,” Vance said.
He challenged the crowd to “reject it in November. Reject the people that try to divide us, one race against the other, one religion against the other. Reject the people who would defend the killer rather than the schoolchildren.” Vance also questioned el Sayed’s judgment, stating, “You’ve got to ask yourself if he’s willing to empathize not with the children who almost had their lives destroyed at the most innocent and what should be the safest place in the world, their school, what is he going to do when he goes to Washington, D.C., when the cameras aren’t on?”
Vance credited Temple Israel’s security personnel for preventing loss of life in the face of clear intent to commit mass murder. “That guy showed up at that synagogue at that school with a desire to kill a lot of children, and he killed precisely zero children because of the brave security guards who did their job and did it very well,” he said.
These remarks were delivered in front of several members of Temple Israel’s security team, whom Vance singled out for their courage in protecting the community. The event, held at Universal Contracting and Urban Tree Trimming in Sterling Heights, brought together local Republican candidates and community members still shaken by the attack.
The controversy around el Sayed’s comments did not end with his apology. In the days following the attack, el Sayed told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he would take his remarks back, and addressed his apology directly to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus. But Vance and supporters argued that this was not enough, and that the initial failure to unequivocally condemn the synagogue attack reflected a deeper failure of leadership and national solidarity.
Vance’s criticism comes amid heightened concerns about anti-Semitic violence and the influence of foreign terrorist groups like Hezbollah in the United States. The FBI’s characterization of the Temple Israel attack as Hezbollah-inspired, and its report that the gunman had consumed Hezbollah-related media, underscored the threat. El Sayed’s opponent, Republican candidate Mike Rogers, was also present at the rally, as was John James, the Republican nominee for governor.
The rally also touched on wider political divisions. Vance referenced the controversial figure Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer previously associated with el Sayed, and pointed to Piker’s past statements supporting Hamas over Israel and claiming the United States “deserved” the 9/11 attacks. The source notes that el Sayed had since distanced himself from Piker, but Vance’s remarks signaled a broader critique of left-wing figures perceived as hostile to American and Israeli security interests.
El Sayed attempted to clarify his position, stating, “In the coming weeks, a narrative is going to take hold. It’ll be shaped in part by the very people who launched that war that led to those airstrikes that killed those children, that drove this crazed attacker to violence against innocent people at a synagogue in Michigan.” Still, he conceded, “I should have issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.”
His later comments to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus reflected regret for his initial response but left open questions about his instincts in moments of crisis. Vance, for his part, insisted that voters should not overlook the consequences of such equivocation from those seeking national office.
As Americans face rising threats to their safety and unity, leadership that puts the country and its people first is not an optional extra, it is the minimum we should expect from those who ask to serve.
