Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over their controversial comments about Israel, declaring their positions “wrong” and insisting they don’t represent the Democratic Party in Congress.
Pelosi, 86, delivered the rebuke during an appearance on Donny Deutsch’s “On Brand” podcast Thursday, after the Jewish host pressed the longtime California Democrat about growing concerns over antisemitism within the party.
Deutsch specifically questioned how Jewish Americans could continue supporting Democrats when prominent members of the party have refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
“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 told Pelosi.
When Deutsch pointed to Mamdani and El-Sayed as examples, Pelosi didn’t mince words.
“No, it’s more than concerning,” she responded. “It’s wrong. It’s wrong. And it isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States.”
Nicholas Martin, spokesperson for Pelosi, however, told The Post Friday that Pelosi still “urged everyone in Michigan and across America to support Abdul El-Sayed.”
“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,” Martin said in a statement.
Pelosi, who served as House speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, also distanced herself from Democrats’ efforts to defend Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) against President Trump’s probe into her citizenship status.
In a letter written by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, 175 House Democrats signed the letter — Pelosi was not one of them.
Omar had previously been stripped of her House committee position for antisemitic comments.
Pelosi offered a more diplomatic assessment of Mamdani, saying she hopes the new mayor succeeds, despite disagreeing with some of his previous comments.
“The mayor, bless his heart, I hope he succeeds as mayor, but I don’t agree with some of the things he has said,” she said.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who became New York City’s mayor after campaigning on a progressive platform, has repeatedly faced questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.
In a June interview with ABC News, Mamdani said he supports Israel existing as a state with equal rights but refused to endorse its Jewish identity.
“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.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, has faced similar scrutiny as he campaigns for Michigan’s open Senate seat against Republican Mike Rogers.
During a May appearance with Jewish supporters, El-Sayed said he “struggled” to answer whether Israel had a right to exist as a Jewish state, arguing the concept conflicted with the liberal values Americans claim to embrace.
The progressive candidate has also described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide and criticized continued US military assistance to the Jewish state.
The controversy comes as Democrats attempt to unite their increasingly fractured coalition ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with divisions over Israel threatening to complicate the party’s efforts to hold onto key congressional seats.
El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, leaving lingering tensions among some of the party’s constituencies. Stevens, who has since endorsed him, has urged the candidate to address concerns surrounding his rhetoric about Israel — while her Jewish fiancé has refused to back El-Sayed.
Stevens and El-Sayed are scheduled to make a joint campaign appearance in Detroit on Sunday alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) in a last-minute effort to consolidate Democratic support before Election Day.
Despite criticizing Mamdani and El-Sayed, Pelosi pushed back against the suggestion that antisemitism is widespread among congressional Democrats.
“The fact is that I really do not know of anybody there on our side who is engaged in antisemitism,” she said, adding that some politicians may say things that “shouldn’t” be said and can be interpreted that way.
She also argued that individual lawmakers’ positions do not necessarily reflect the party’s broader consensus, pointing to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
“If somebody said that, the other members disassociate themselves from it,” Pelosi said.
But Rabbi Yaakov Meken, executive president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, questioned whether Pelosi was doing enough to acknowledge the problem.
When describing Pelosi as one of the Jewish community’s strongest friends among House Democrats, Menken said her comments suggested she had turned a blind eye to concerns raised by Jewish leaders.
“Pelosi claims she wants for those voices to be marginalized within her party, yet she demonstrates that she had turned a deaf ear,” Menken told Fox News Digital.
Representatives for El-Sayed and Mamdani did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
