Nancy Pelosi called Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed’s Israel positions wrong and unrepresentative of Democrats, while her spokesperson still pushed voters to back El-Sayed.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a Jewish podcast host Thursday that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed are “wrong” on Israel and that their views are not a reflection of Democrats in Congress.
The rebuke landed as Democrats try to hold a fractured coalition together ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, with Jewish voters watching how party leaders handle progressive attacks on Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.
On Donny Deutsch’s “On Brand” podcast, Deutsch pressed the longtime California Democrat on antisemitism concerns inside the party and on the two rising progressive figures. Deutsch put the core dispute in plain terms.
"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,"
Pelosi did not soft-pedal her reply.
"No, it’s more than concerning,"
She went further.
"It’s wrong. It’s wrong. And it isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States."
The New York Post reported that Pelosi, 86, who served as House speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, singled out both men while still offering a softer note on Mamdani’s mayoralty.
"The mayor, bless his heart, I hope he succeeds as mayor, but I don’t agree with some of the things he has said,"
Friday brought the political hedge. Spokesperson Nicholas Martin told the Post that Pelosi still “urged everyone in Michigan and across America to support Abdul El-Sayed.” Martin framed the disagreement as limited.
"While they may disagree with him on some issues, she is united with him in the fight to lower costs, protect healthcare and defend our democracy,"
Call the positions wrong on Thursday. Ask Michigan voters to back the candidate on Friday. That is the split-screen Democratic leaders keep offering Jewish voters who hear the Israel rhetoric first and the unity message second.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won the New York mayor’s office on a progressive platform, faced repeated questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. In a June ABC News interview, he backed Israel existing as a state with equal rights but refused to endorse its Jewish character.
"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,"
El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and now faces Republican Mike Rogers, took a similar path in a May appearance with Jewish supporters. He “struggled” to answer whether Israel had a right to exist as a Jewish state and argued the concept conflicted with liberal values Americans claim to embrace. He has described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide and criticized continued U.S. military assistance to Israel.
Neither Mamdani’s nor El-Sayed’s representatives immediately responded to the Post’s requests for comment after Pelosi’s remarks.
Pelosi insisted the problem is not party-wide. She said individual lawmakers’ positions do not necessarily reflect broader consensus and pointed to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in that argument. She also claimed distance from open bigotry.
"The fact is that I really do not know of anybody there on our side who is engaged in antisemitism,"
She added that some politicians may say things that “shouldn’t” be said and can be interpreted that way, and that if somebody said that, “the other members disassociate themselves from it.”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told Fox News Digital that Pelosi’s record does not match the claim that such voices are being pushed aside.
"Pelosi claims she wants for those voices to be marginalized within her party, yet she demonstrates that she had turned a deaf ear,"
The gap is hard to miss. Pelosi brands the Israel comments wrong and “more than concerning,” then her office asks the country to elect the Michigan candidate anyway. Jewish leaders who wanted clearer quarantine of that rhetoric got a lecture on costs and healthcare instead.
The same pattern showed up on another Israel-adjacent fight. Rep. Pramila Jayapal wrote a letter to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security defending Rep. Ilhan Omar amid a presidential probe into Omar’s citizenship status. One hundred seventy-five House Democrats signed it. Pelosi did not.
Omar had previously been stripped of a House committee position for antisemitic comments. Pelosi’s non-signature on the Jayapal letter sits beside her podcast claim that she does not know of anybody on “our side” engaged in antisemitism, and beside her decision to keep backing El-Sayed after calling his Israel stance wrong.
Stevens, after losing the primary, has endorsed El-Sayed and urged him to address concerns about his Israel rhetoric. Her Jewish fiancé has refused to back El-Sayed. Stevens, El-Sayed, and Rep. Jim Clyburn were scheduled for a joint campaign appearance in Detroit on Sunday, a public show of unity while the Israel dispute remains unresolved.
Party leaders want the coalition whole for November. Progressive candidates keep refusing to affirm Israel as a Jewish state. Pelosi says that refusal is wrong and does not speak for Democrats in Congress. Then her spokesperson tells Michigan and the rest of America to support the candidate anyway. Voters can hear both messages. They do not cancel each other out.
When a party’s elder stateswoman labels a Senate nominee’s Israel stance wrong and still asks the country to elect him, Jewish voters are being told the disagreement is real, and that it will not cost anyone the nomination.
