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El-Sayed challenges Vance to weightlifting competition: ‘You talk a good game’ Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) responded Friday to Vice President Vance’s disses on his appearance, saying he’d challenge President Trump’s second-in-command to a weightlifting competition to prove whether he’s “as strong as he likes to pretend he is.” TMZ DC asked El-Sayed about a TikTok post earlier this week where Vance joked about the Democratic nominee having a “patchy beard,” to which he hit back with his own jabs at the vice president’s looks. The Michigan Democrat said, “If I actually met him [Vance], I’d be like, ‘All right, let’s just actually see. How much paste did you have to put on your face to get that little beard?’” “JD, listen, man. You talk a good game. You went to Ohio State. Didn’t even know how to handle the trophy when you pick it up, right? And now you’re on, what? Like juiced up on TRT [testosterone replacement therapy]. I’m all natural, bro,” El-Sayed continued, before adding he’d be “happy to invite him to any weight room, in any place.” “And at the end of the day, the bigger question, my issue with you, is not your beard, right? As much as you want to make it about my beard. My issue with you is that you, you are out here riding policy that you know is stupid … and then you try to act the tough guy, because you can’t be the tough guy to the actual boss, because you’re afraid of him.” El-Sayed and the vice president have gone tit-for-tat with insults throughout the midterm election cycle. During an August campaign-style rally, Vance called the Senate candidate “very, very evil.” Trump has similarly targeted El-Sayed, previously labeling him as “crazy,” a “jihadist” and a “Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel.” “Well, let me tell you what’s evil,” El-Sayed said when asked about Vance’s August remarks. “Evil is the idea of starting wars when there’s peace. Evil is the idea of stripping away people’s healthcare when they absolutely have no other option. What’s evil is to do that, so that you can pass a tax cut for billionaires.” The vice president has also been critical of El-Sayed’s association with political commentator and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, whose 2019 comments saying the U.S. deserved the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks drew criticism ahead of November’s midterms. El-Sayed disavowed Piker’s controversial statement, for which the streamer has since apologized. El-Sayed is facing off against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in a key battleground state that former President Biden won in 2020 and Trump won in 2024. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
document fetched 2026-09-19 02:58 · canonical https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6098893-el-sayed-vance-weightlifting-challenge