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By Joe Edwards
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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rebuked Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over his past comments about Israel, calling them "wrong."
Pelosi was speaking on the podcast On Brand, during which the host Donny Deutsch said he felt a wing of the Democratic Party held views he considered to be antisemitic.
"It's hard and sad and it's upsetting to see so much of what's going on in the Democratic Party as a Jewish man, it's almost unbelievable," 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."
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Pelosi asked for examples, to which Deutsch replied that El-Sayed had said that he "doesn't believe they should be a Jewish state," adding that it was "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. This new person in Michigan, we'll see if he gets elected to the Congress."
Speaking previously about antisemitism, El-Sayed told Morning Joe in August: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms wherever we see it."
Newsweek contacted El-Sayed's campaign for comment on Friday outside of standard working hours.
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El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in the high-profile Senate race in Michigan—a closely divided battleground that Trump carried by 1.4 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
El-Sayed has drawn scrutiny for his views on Israel, including over his description of Israel's war in Gaza as a "genocide" and remarks that he did not consider Israel as a U.S. ally.
El-Sayed has rejected suggestions that criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza is equivalent to antisemitism or rejecting someone due to their faith.
In an interview with the journalist Mehdi Hasan, El-Sayed was asked about accusations of antisemitism and whether disputed Israel's right to exist. "I do not. I just dispute the idea that you should have an ethnostate," he said.
This is a developing story. More to follow.
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