Skip to the story
All stories

Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather

Second Lady Usha Vance addressed comments by Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed that questioned her acceptance by JD Vance's family.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Usha Vance Responds After Abdul El-Sayed Criticizes JD Vance’s Family

What this story says

  • Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed suggested Vice President JD Vance's family might not have accepted his wife, Usha Vance.
  • El-Sayed's comment was made in response to JD Vance referencing his late maternal grandfather, James 'Papaw' Vance.
  • Usha Vance responded by saying she laughed and that the children JD Vance's parents raised were always loving.
  • JD Vance had previously criticized El-Sayed's past remarks linking criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy.

Who covered it

Left 0%(0)Centre 8%(1)Right 92%(12)

Percentages are shares of the 13 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 2 of the 15 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

61/100

Hype

41/100

15 sources · methodology

Thin on the left so far

None of the 13 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Second Lady Usha Vance responded to remarks made by Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who implied that Vice President JD Vance's family might not have embraced her. El-Sayed's comment followed JD Vance's reference to his late maternal grandfather, James 'Papaw' Vance, during a criticism of El-Sayed's political stances.

In response to El-Sayed's statement, "So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…", Usha Vance stated during an appearance on Fox News that she "kind of laughed." She added that while she never met JD Vance's maternal grandparents, she knew and loved the children they raised, describing them as "incredibly loving." Usha Vance also noted her close relationship with JD Vance's maternal aunt, whom she considers like a second mother, and expressed a desire to have met his grandparents.

Disagreement on El-Sayed's intent

Reports differ on the interpretation of El-Sayed's comment. Internewscast stated the remark "appeared to suggest that Vance’s Indian-American wife might have faced hostility from his white Midwestern grandfather." The New York Post described it as "seemingly in reference to the second lady’s Indian ethnicity." Voz.us reported El-Sayed questioned "the acceptance that the vice president's wife would have had in her spouse's family environment because of her origins."

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated reports below mention JD Vance's past remarks linking criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy, which was the initial point of contention that preceded El-Sayed's comment. The centre-rated report from Internewscast did include this detail.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 5 times, most recently on 27 Aug 2026, 20:15, and will add the sides that appear.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Wedding descends into chaos as families with bad blood brawl at reception
New York PostRight

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Centre

1 rated outlet

  • The centre-rated report from Internewscast led with Usha Vance's response to Abdul El-Sayed's criticism of JD Vance's family. It detailed El-Sayed's comment about meeting 'Papaw' and Usha Vance's measured reply, including her statement that she laughed and loved the children JD Vance's parents raised. The report also noted that critics accused El-Sayed of targeting a politician's spouse and that some called him a "racist creep."

Right

12 rated outlets

  • The right-rated reports focused on Usha Vance's response to what they characterised as a "racist" or "racial swipe" from Abdul El-Sayed. Headlines from outlets including the New York Post, American Wire News, and Bizpac Review used phrases like "perfect response" and "answers with class." Many reports highlighted El-Sayed's comment about JD Vance's grandfather and Usha Vance's reply that she "kind of laughed" and that the children JD Vance's parents raised were loving. Several outlets, such as The Blaze and Analyzing America, also referenced JD Vance's prior criticism of El-Sayed's remarks linking Sharia law criticism to white supremacy.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather?
Of the 13 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 8% are rated centre, 92% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 15. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather left or right?
The story itself is neither. What can be counted is who has covered it, and 92% of the 13 rated outlets on it are rated right — so far this is a story carried mostly by the right. Coverage is still arriving and that can change, which is why the figure is dated rather than fixed.
Is the coverage of Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather biased?
Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather is one event reported by 15 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed's Jab About JD Vance's Grandfather?
15 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Abdul El-Sayed say about JD Vance's family?
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed suggested that Vice President JD Vance's family might not have embraced his wife, Usha Vance. El-Sayed's comment was made in response to JD Vance referencing his late maternal grandfather, James 'Papaw' Vance.
How did Usha Vance respond to El-Sayed's comments?
Usha Vance stated she "kind of laughed" at the remark. She added that she loved the children JD Vance's parents raised, describing them as "incredibly loving," and expressed a wish to have met JD Vance's grandparents.
What was the context for El-Sayed's comment?
JD Vance had referenced his late maternal grandfather, James 'Papaw' Vance, while criticizing El-Sayed's past remarks that linked criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy. El-Sayed's comment about Usha Vance's acceptance by the family followed this exchange.

Read it at the source

15 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

Centre

1

Right

12
Show 4 more

Not rated

2

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Usha Vance Responds to El-Sayed | MediaBias News