Pelosi Calls Mamdani's and El-Sayed's Comments on Israel 'Wrong,' but Says They Do Not Reflect House Democrats
On Donny Deutsch's podcast, the former Speaker said the New York mayor's and Michigan Senate candidate's past remarks on Israel are 'more than concerning.' She also said she knows of no antisemitism among House Democrats, and a rabbi's group told Fox she is missing the problem.
A veteran Democrat broke with two of the party's rising progressives on Thursday, then played down what it means for her party, Fox News reports.
The exchange. Podcast host Donny Deutsch, who is Jewish, asked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., how he could back the Democratic Party when politicians say things he considers antisemitic. "When you say Israel doesn't have the right to be a Jewish state, that's antisemitic as far as I'm concerned," Deutsch said. He named New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Pelosi replied: "No, it's more than concerning. It's wrong. It's wrong. And it isn't a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States." She said of Mamdani, "bless his heart, I hope he succeeds as mayor, but I don't agree with some of the things he has said." On El-Sayed she said, "we'll see if he gets elected to the Congress."
The record. Fox says Mamdani repeatedly dodged questions on whether Israel should be a Jewish state before he won. In a June 28 ABC News interview he said he supported Israel as a state with equal rights but would not endorse it as a Jewish state. "Any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can't tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else," he said. Fox says El-Sayed has repeatedly declined to say whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, and in May said he "struggled" with the question.
The limit. Earlier in the interview Pelosi said she knows of no one on the Democratic side engaged in antisemitism, and that "if they are, it's only a few." She said members represent their districts and that their views do not set the party's consensus. Rabbi Yaakov Menken of the Coalition for Jewish Values called Pelosi "one of the Jewish community's best friends among House Democrats" but said it was alarming she did not seem to recognize antisemitism among colleagues.
The stakes. El-Sayed is on the Nov. 3 ballot in Michigan. Fox says it asked Pelosi, Mamdani and El-Sayed for comment and did not immediately hear back.
Note for readers: the quotes come from Fox's account of the podcast. We did not listen to the full interview, and the antisemitism label is Deutsch's and Menken's, not a finding.