Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's Israel comments wrong, insisting they do not reflect Democrats in Congress.

Fox News Digital reported that Pelosi delivered the rebuke Thursday while appearing with “On Brand” podcast host Donny Deutsch.

Deutsch, who is Jewish, asked how he could keep backing the Democratic Party when some of its rising figures make statements he views as antisemitic. He pointed to Mamdani and El-Sayed by name.

Pelosi did not hedge. She said the comments went beyond concerning and flatly rejected them as a mirror of her party’s members on Capitol Hill.

Deutsch put the core objection 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 answered without delay.

"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. 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 refused to back Israel as a Jewish state

Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York City. Before voters put him in office, he repeatedly dodged direct questions about whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state.

In a June 28 interview with ABC News, Mamdani said he backed Israel as a state with equal rights for all. He would not endorse it as a Jewish state. He went further.

"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,"

That formulation equates the world’s only Jewish state with any country that elevates a faith. It is the exact stance Deutsch flagged as antisemitic.

El-Sayed struggled with the same question

Abdul El-Sayed is running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in Michigan. In a May appearance with Jewish supporters, he declined to affirm that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.

He said he “struggled” to answer. He suggested the idea of a Jewish state was not consistent with the liberal values “we say we believe in here in the United States.”

Fox News Digital sought comment from representatives for both Mamdani and El-Sayed. Neither responded immediately.

Pelosi tried to wall off congressional Democrats from the same language. She said she did not know of anyone “on our side” engaged in antisemitism.

"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,"

She added that members represent their districts and that local politics do not revise the party’s consensus. She pointed to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as having been “very clear” on that point.

That claim of tight message control sits uneasily beside recent House Democrats crossing party lines on key procedural votes.

Pelosi’s office still pushes hard for El-Sayed

Hours after the podcast exchange, the public line softened. Nicholas Martin, a spokesperson for Pelosi, issued a statement urging full support for the Michigan candidate.

"Speaker Emerita Pelosi urges everyone in Michigan and across America to support Abdul El-Sayed and help elect him to the United States Senate. While they may disagree on some issues, she is united with him in the fight to lower costs, protect healthcare and defend our democracy. The stakes in this election could not be higher, and she believes all Democrats must come together to win back the Congress and deliver for the American people."

Call the comments wrong on Thursday. Bankroll the candidate by Friday. The sequence is not subtle.

Pelosi has already begun framing the coming midterms around economic attacks, a theme she has used while launching a midterm offensive aimed at retaking power.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, said the gap between Pelosi’s words and her party’s tolerance should alarm even her longtime admirers. He called her one of the Jewish community’s better friends among House Democrats, then delivered a sharper verdict.

"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. If she is indeed one of our best friends, should we not be scared by that?"

Party unity talk collides with the record

Pelosi’s defense rests on a familiar claim: a few outliers do not define the caucus, and leaders such as Jeffries keep the consensus intact. Yet the same leadership class is already preparing for a post-election fight over who runs the party’s machinery.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has already vowed to seek another term atop his conference no matter how the midterms land. House Democrats, meanwhile, keep floating aggressive oversight plans as they eye a possible power shift.

That includes early talk of impeachment threats timed to midterm leverage. The pattern is consistent. Protect the brand in public. Keep every progressive vote in the coalition when the math gets tight.

Pelosi said House members would “disassociate” from anyone who denies Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Her own office then asked Democrats nationwide to elect the Michigan candidate who struggled to affirm that right.

Voters who care about Israel’s security and about plain language on antisemitism now have both statements on the record. One scolds. One endorses. Only one comes with a fundraising ask.

Democratic leaders want credit for drawing a line on Israel while still clearing a path for candidates who blur it. That double signal is the story, and it will not age well with anyone who took the first rebuke seriously.