Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Thursday over their positions on Israel, calling their views “wrong” and saying they do not represent congressional Democrats.
Pelosi addressed the issue during an appearance on the “On Brand” podcast after host Donny Deutsch asked how he, as a Jewish man, could continue supporting the Democratic Party while backing politicians whose remarks he viewed as antisemitic.
“When you say Israel doesn’t have the right to be a Jewish state, that’s antisemitic as far as I’m concerned with all that,” Deutsch said.
After Pelosi asked whom he was referring to, Deutsch cited Mamdani and El-Sayed, describing their comments as “concerning.”
“No, it’s more than concerning,” Pelosi replied. “It’s wrong. It’s wrong. And it isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. This new person in Michigan, we’ll see if he gets elected to the Congress.
“But the mayor, bless his heart, I hope he succeeds as mayor, but I don’t agree with some of the things he has said. But in terms of our people in the House of Representatives, if somebody says that, the other members disassociate themselves from it.”
Mamdani, who was elected New York City mayor after repeatedly avoiding questions about whether Israel should be a Jewish state, offered a more direct answer in a June 28 interview with ABC News. He said he supported Israel as a state providing equal rights but stopped short of endorsing it as a Jewish state.
“I think 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,” Mamdani said.
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El-Sayed, meanwhile, has also repeatedly declined to affirm that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.
During a May meeting with Jewish supporters, El-Sayed said he had “struggled” with the question and argued that the concept of a Jewish state appeared inconsistent with the liberal principles “we say we believe in here in the United States.”
Earlier in the podcast interview, Pelosi initially rejected the suggestion that antisemitism was present within the Democratic Party.
“The fact is that I really do not know of anybody there on our side who is engaged in antisemitism. That may be what it appears to be or what they’re charged to be. But if they are, it’s only a few. If there are, I think sometimes they say things that they shouldn’t and can be interpreted that way,” Pelosi said.
Even as she criticized Mamdani and El-Sayed, Pelosi said their statements should not be viewed as representative of the Democratic Party overall.
“People represent their districts, and we have to respect that. The job description, job title is representative, but that doesn’t mean it has an impact on the consensus of the Democratic Party, and [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries has been very clear on that,” Pelosi said.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, described Pelosi as one of the Jewish community’s strongest allies among House Democrats. Still, he said it was troubling that she appeared not to recognize antisemitism among some of her colleagues.
“Pelosi claims she wants for those voices to be marginalized within her party, yet she demonstrates that she has turned a deaf ear, both to antisemitic expression from her colleagues and to the rabbis anxious to set her straight on the magnitude of the problem,” Menken told Fox News Digital.
“If she is indeed one of our best friends, should we not be scared by that?”