Pelosi calls Mamdani and El-Sayed's past comments on Israel 'concerning' and 'wrong'

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has criticised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over their views on Israel, calling their positions 'wrong' on Thursday and saying they did not reflect congressional Democrats.

Pelosi made the remarks in conversation with 'On Brand' podcast host Donny Deutsch. Deutsch, describing himself as a Jewish man, asked how he could reconcile his support for the Democratic Party with politicians whose statements he considered antisemitic.

Deutsch said: 'When you say Israel doesn't have the right to be a Jewish state, that's antisemitic, as far as I'm concerned.'

When Pelosi asked for examples, Deutsch named Mamdani and El-Sayed, calling their comments 'concerning'. Pelosi responded: '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.'

Pelosi said it remained to be seen whether the new candidate in Michigan would be elected to Congress. On Mamdani, she said she hoped he would succeed as mayor, but did not agree with some of the things he had said. She added that in the House of Representatives, if somebody said that, the other members dissociated themselves from it.

Before he was elected New York City mayor, Mamdani repeatedly dodged questions when asked if Israel should be a Jewish state. In a June 28 interview with ABC News, however, Mamdani said he supported Israel as a state with equal rights but declined to endorse it as a Jewish state.

In that interview Mamdani said: '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 has also repeatedly declined to affirm whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. In a May appearance with Jewish supporters, the candidate said he 'struggled' to answer the question and suggested the idea of a Jewish state was not consistent with the liberal values 'we say we believe in here in the United States'.

Earlier in the interview with Deutsch, Pelosi initially denied that anyone in the Democratic Party was antisemitic. She said: '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.'

Despite her concerns, Pelosi dismissed the two men's impact on the party as a whole. She said people represent their districts and that has to be respected, that the job title of representative does not mean an impact on the consensus of the Democratic Party, and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had been very clear on that.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, acknowledged Pelosi as one of the Jewish community's best friends among House Democrats, but said it was alarming that she did not seem to recognise antisemitism among her colleagues. Menken said Pelosi claims she wants those voices marginalised within her party, yet demonstrates she has turned a deaf ear both to antisemitic expression from her colleagues and to rabbis anxious to set her straight on the magnitude of the problem.