JD Vance and Abdul El-Sayed, it’s safe to say, do not like each other.
Vance, the Republican US vice president, recently said of El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate nominee in Michigan, that there’s something about him “that is very, very evil.” El-Sayed responded to Vance, “Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power.”
But the two men have something in common: They’re both friends with mega-influential media personalities who have been accused of antisemitism.
Vance and El-Sayed have addressed — or, rather, tried to sidestep — those controversies in remarkably similar ways. Their responses show how quickly the discourse on antisemitism in America is changing, and highlight the collapsing firewall between politicians and extremists.
El-Sayed has close ties to Hasan Piker, the far-left, staunchly anti-Israel streamer. El-Sayed invited Piker to campaign for him in Michigan, delivering speeches promoting his candidacy. The two men have partied together and been photographed together.
