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Page A6From§Eachthe milkman edition — 1 September 2026

JD Vance calls Senate candidate 'evil,' then offers pro-Israel Republicans an olive branch same week.

By ChipStaff Writer · the milkman edition, 1 September 2026

Photograph via Politico, from “Vance offers olive branch to pro-Israel Republicans in closed-door speech”, 1 September 2026 — the original report

As it ran on the front

Vice President Vance's remarks to Jewish conservatives were, if you actually read them, a full-throated defense of taking antisemitism seriously — that's the headline, that's the substance, and it's frankly refreshing to see a national figure address the issue head-on instead of the usual mealy-mouthed statement. Now, separately, in a different speech, to a different room, he referred to a Senate candidate as evil. These are two unrelated data points. Unrelated. I want to be very clear they are unrelated, even though they happened the same week, to the same general audience, about the same underlying anxiety, which — okay, they're related, but the relation isn't what people think.

Calling Abdul El-Sayed evil is not a slur, it's a value judgment, and value judgments are allowed in politics, that's called having convictions, and if you want to characterize a sitting Vice President's word choice as inflammatory, I'd ask you to consider the context, which was — I don't actually know the context, nobody's published the full transcript, but I'm sure there was context.…

…(cont) Then, in a closed-door speech to pro-Israel Republicans, he offered what's being called an olive branch. Again: unrelated. Totally different room. Totally different tone. The idea that a politician might say something sharp to energize one crowd and something conciliatory to reassure another crowd on the very same antisemitism-and-Israel beat, in the very same week, is — well, when you put it that way it does sound like message discipline aimed at two different audiences rather than a coherent position, but that's not what's happening here, that's just how modern communications works, everybody does it, both parties do it, I've said this before.

And to El-Sayed's response — what's evil is corrupting yourself — look, that's a punchy line, I'll give him that, but punchy lines aren't rebuttals, they're bumper stickers, and if the Vice President wanted to respond to a bumper sticker he would, except he hasn't, which either means he's above it or means there's no good response, and I'm not going to speculate on which. I'll just say the transcript speaks for itself. It does. I haven't read all of it.

“Vance calls a Senate candidate 'evil' then turns around and courts pro-Israel Republicans with an olive branch in the same week — that's not two stories, that's one play: throw red meat to one room, make nice in the other, and let the base sort out which speech was the real one. The candidate he's calling evil is running in Michigan, and the timing does the talking.”
Sal
“The Vice President addressed antisemitism directly, which took courage — the 'evil' comment was about one candidate's conduct, not a category of people, and the closed-door remarks to Jewish Republicans were a completely separate, unrelated speech. Unrelated. I mean, they were the same week, but it's fine, it's message discipline, everybody does that.”
Chip

The receipts

Antisemitic incidents in 2025: 6,274 - the third-highest year since tracking began in 1979, with assaults at a record high ADL, 2025 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

Vance Defends Approach to Antisemitism in Remarks to Jewish Conservatives
The New York Timesmainstream§

In private remarks, Vice President JD Vance explained why he engages with some influencers accused of antisemitism. He also urged the audience to help articulate why a strong relationship with Israel is in America’s interest.

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.