Vance casts Michigan Senate race as choice between ‘good human being’ and ‘guy who defends literal terrorism’

Vice President JD Vance underscored Michigan Senate Republican nominee Mike Rogers‘s nice-guy reputation during his debut public appearance on the campaign trail with President Donald Trump‘s super PAC, MAGA Inc.“I’m not asking you to vote for Mike Rogers because you’re going to agree with him 100% of the time,” Vance told the crowd on Monday in Sterling Heights, Michigan. “I’m asking you to vote for Mike Rogers because he’s going to go to Washington and he’s going to fight for you.”Rogers’s race against Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed has gained national attention, in part, because of el Sayed’s controversial comments, including regarding sharia law, and his relationship with socialist Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker. To help flesh out the contrast between the two candidates, Vance described Rogers as “just a good human being who loves this country and has served this country for decades.” In comparison, Vance described el Sayed as “fighting against the interests of the people in this room and fighting for the most terrible ideas and terrible policies.”Vance specifically criticized el Sayed for saying that “hurt people hurt people” after a man rammed a car and opened fire at Temple Israel, a Michigan synagogue, earlier this year. El Sayed’s defenders have sought to justify the comments, noting the attacker lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.Vance, who himself has been criticized for his scrutiny of Israel amid the Iran and Hamas wars, told the crowd gathered at Universal Contracting and Urban Tree Trimming that he was not asking Michigan voters “to agree with every single policy that’s in the Republican Party platform.”“We’re a big-tent party,” he said. “We welcome people with differences of opinions and differences of backgrounds. What I am asking you is to remember that the same guy who defends literal terrorism is maybe not going to have your best interests at heart when he gets to Washington, D.C.”OBAMA SUMMONED TO ACTION AS GOP WIDENS CASH ADVANTAGEVance added that he was asking Michigan voters to remember that “whoever you send to Washington, whatever policy views you have or you don’t have, send people of good heart who focus on the right issues, who fight for the right people, and who love the United States of America.”“I’m asking you to send the crazy people to the curb,” he said. “Send a message to the elected leadership of the Democrat Party that if you want us to vote for you, you’ve got to stop sending us crazy people to represent your party, and help us elect some common sense, some principle.”