Beverly Aikins, the mother of Vice President Vance, said Wednesday that she would “probably punch” Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over recent remarks he made about her son and his family. The comment came during an appearance on Fox News’ “Tomi Lahren is Fearless,” where host Tomi Lahren played a clip of El-Sayed criticizing Vance.
In the clip, El-Sayed said of Vance: “Can you imagine, he’s got brown kids, at some point he’s going to have a really awkward conversation with his kids, like, you made your career hating people who are different.” Aikins responded sharply, calling El-Sayed “an idiot” and defending her son’s family. “Those are my babies. I love those babies. I would do anything for them. I love Usha as if she were my own daughter,” she said.
Aikins added that she doesn’t “pay attention to people like that,” but later admitted the remarks angered her. “It makes me mad, honestly,” she said. “But in the long run I’m not going to do anything about it. I mean, you know, I’d probably punch the guy if I’d ever seen him, and then that would get me in trouble.”
The exchange is the latest escalation in a bitter feud between Vance and El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. On Monday, at a campaign rally in Detroit, Vance labeled El-Sayed “very, very evil,” saying, “There’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today.”
El-Sayed fired back in a CNN interview the same day, arguing that “evil” is “the idea of starting wars when there’s peace,” “stripping away people’s healthcare when they absolutely have no other option,” and doing so “so that you can pass a tax cut for billionaires.”
The personal animosity has drawn attention to Vance’s family history, which he detailed in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, including his mother’s struggle with addiction. Aikins, who has been sober for a decade, celebrated her milestone at the White House in 2025 with her son’s family and attended the 2024 inauguration.
During the interview, Lahren also brought up a post by El-Sayed on X in which he mused about Vance’s wife Usha accompanying him “back in time to meet Papaw.” Aikins dismissed such comments as coming from people “jealous” of the vice president’s family.
The escalating rhetoric comes as Vance continues to take on a more prominent role in the administration, including delivering White House briefings amid the vacant press secretary position. Meanwhile, El-Sayed has faced his own controversies, including criticism over his association with progressive pundit Hasan Piker, and has received an endorsement from Representative Jim Clyburn.
