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President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed Wednesday, singling out the progressive candidate as “full of s—” while arguing Democrats are embracing communism.
The remarks came hours after El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democrat Senate primary, winning by less than one percentage point after The Associated Press called the race early Wednesday.
He will face Republican Mike Rogers in November for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Trump devoted several minutes of his Las Vegas speech to attacking democratic socialist candidates, arguing they are advancing communist ideas and calling communism “the greatest threat” facing the United States.
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“These people are dangerous and frankly, they are lunatics. They’re crazy, and we can’t let them get into office,” Trump said. “Communism is the greatest threat to our country in its history, including even World War One, World War Two, Pearl Harbor, 9/11. I think it’s the greatest threat.”
The White House later amplified that portion of Trump’s remarks on social media, posting simply: “Communism is the greatest threat to our country.”
Trump mocked what he said communist policies would mean for Americans.
“Would you like a free house? We’ll take one from your neighbor. Would you like free rent? We’ll take it from whoever. We’ll take your building away from the landlord,” Trump said. “What they don’t say, and what Republicans should say, is that at the end of the year, you’ll have nothing but death, squalor, poverty. You’ll have a life of hell.”
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The president pointed to Venezuela as an example of what he said happens when communist policies take hold.
“Look at Venezuela, where it was such a rich country 20 years ago,” Trump said. “Every time this has happened, you go through squalor … filth, crime, death, destruction, embarrassment. You lose your home. You lose your apartment.”
Trump then singled out El-Sayed by name, drawing one of the loudest reactions of the night.
“When I watch Abdul, he’s full of s—,” Trump said.
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El-Sayed’s victory gives Democrats a progressive nominee in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. Backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., El-Sayed campaigned on Medicare for All, getting money out of politics and ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
He has described himself as a capitalist and has distanced himself from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), though Republicans have frequently tied him to the broader democratic socialist movement.
Trump later returned to a familiar theme from the second term of his presidency.
“If you remember, during my State of the Union speech, I made a very strong statement. I said that America will never be a socialist country,” Trump said. “I was right.”
The president argued Democrats now want to move beyond socialism.
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“What I didn’t say is what they’re trying to do. They want to skip socialism. They want to go right down to the bottom of the barrel. That’s communism,” Trump said. “They want it to be a communist country. We’re not letting them have it as a communist country, not even for a minute.”
Trump closed by vowing to defeat what he called the Democrat Party’s leftward movement.
“Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America once and for all,” Trump said. “It’s defeated. It’s going to go down. It always goes down.”
The White House and El-Sayed’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller, Kiera McDonald, and Robert Schmad contributed to this reporting.
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