Vance calls El-Sayed a "weasel" as Michigan Senate race heats up

Vice President JD Vance has escalated a bitter fight over Michigan's Senate seat, telling Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed to "shut his mouth" and branding him a weasel. El-Sayed, a University of Michigan graduate, answered at an Upper Peninsula rally of more than 1,300 people by telling Vance, an Ohio State graduate, to take his Buckeye elsewhere and insisting that an outsider has no standing to lecture him on America. The seat matters because Democrats need it to win back Senate control in November, according to CBS News.

President Trump, Vance and other Republicans have cast El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who has run public health agencies in Michigan, as an extremist. Trump called him a Muslim Brotherhood member in a Truth Social video, though CBS News notes there is no evidence for that. The allegations trace partly to old posts by El-Sayed's half-sister about their mother's activism. He denies any ties, says he barely knew his mother growing up, and calls the attacks a response to his faith.

Republican Mike Rogers said the contest is about ideology, not prayer, though he told CBS News the data on terrorism was clear. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined El-Sayed's tour and moved $1 million to his campaign.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →