Beverly Vance Aikins, the mother of Vice President JD Vance, said in a new interview that she would consider throwing a punch at Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed if she ever encountered him in person, following months of pointed comments El-Sayed has made about the vice president and his family.
Aikins made the remark during an interview with Outkick and Fox News host Tomi Lahren, who asked how she reacts to El-Sayed’s comments about her son.
“I’d probably punch the guy if I ever seen him, and then that would get me in trouble. So, I’ll just go with the flow,” Aikins said.
Asked whether she laughs off remarks like El-Sayed’s or gets angry, Aikins said the comments do bother her.
“I mean, it makes me mad, honestly, because he doesn’t know JD, and he doesn’t know, you know, what type of person he is, and I do. But, in the long run, I’m not going to do anything about it,” she said.
The interview, which also touched on Aikins’ recovery from opioid addiction and the Netflix adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy,” came after El-Sayed repeatedly targeted Vance and his family in public appearances, including remarks about second lady Usha Vance and the couple’s children.
Background on the feud
In an April appearance on “The Allen Analysis Show,” clips of which resurfaced recently, El-Sayed suggested Vance’s politics conflict with the biracial background of his own children.
“JD Vance has brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else. Like, that’s wild to look at your own kids and be like you don’t actually belong as much in this country that I brought you into,” El-Sayed said. “Bro, it must break you every time you hug your own kids.”
El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and has described himself as a socialist, said he hopes Vance’s children grow up to “undo” their father’s politics. He also appeared to suggest the second lady should leave her husband, saying, “Usha get out … you’ve still got time.”
Aikins pushed back on the criticism during the interview.
“I think they’re jealous, honestly. I mean, JD is 42 years old. He’s handsome. He’s the vice president of the United States,” she said. “He’s got a beautiful wife, four beautiful children, and jealousy is the only thing I can think of. I mean, he can take all the shots he wants. It’s going to go, you know, it’s going to get no merit from any of us.”
Sharia comments reignite dispute
The feud flared again more recently after Vance criticized El-Sayed over his stated adherence to Sharia law during a rally in Ohio, telling the crowd the practice would have been foreign to his grandfather, whom he calls his “Papaw.”
El-Sayed responded with a remark referencing the second lady’s Indian ethnicity: “So, do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no.”
Vance addressed El-Sayed’s comments directly while campaigning in Michigan for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers.
“I actually think that the people of Michigan think it’s kind of weird when you talk about another guy’s wife,” Vance told the rally. “But whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth, because she’s way out of your league.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the vice president’s office and to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
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