Pelosi calls El-Sayed's Israel comments 'wrong' ahead of Michigan Senate vote

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly criticized Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over his past comments about Israel, calling them "wrong" on a podcast released this week ¹².

Pelosi appeared on the podcast "On Brand" with host Donny Deutsch. Deutsch, who described himself as a Jewish man, said he found it hard to reconcile his support for the Democratic Party with statements by some politicians that he considered antisemitic ¹².

Deutsch named El-Sayed as an example, saying his comments were "concerning" ¹. He also named New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ². Pelosi answered that the issue was more than concerning ¹².

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.

Pelosi added that the views do not represent Democrats in Congress, and that if a House member said such things, other members would distance themselves ².

From Channel GOPEl-Sayed answers RFK Jr.'s claim about Arab scienceAbdul El-Sayed · 145 plays · captioned, with the source named

El-Sayed has faced scrutiny over his views on Israel, including his description of Israel's war in Gaza as a "genocide" and remarks that he did not consider Israel a U.S. ally ¹. He has rejected suggestions that criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza is equivalent to antisemitism ¹.

Asked in an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan whether he disputed Israel's right to exist, El-Sayed said: "I do not. I just dispute the idea that you should have an ethnostate" ¹.

On 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" ¹.

The race and the stakes

El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan, a closely divided battleground that Trump carried by 1.4 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election ¹. Newsweek contacted El-Sayed's campaign for comment on Friday outside of standard working hours ¹.

The pattern is a party trying to keep its coalition together in the final days. Pelosi's words give Republicans a quote from a leading Democrat to use against El-Sayed, while El-Sayed's defenders can point to his own statement on Jewish safety. That matters because Michigan is one of the races that will decide which party controls the Senate next year.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told Fox News Digital that Pelosi is "one of the Jewish community's best friends among House Democrats" but said he was alarmed she did not seem to recognize antisemitism among her colleagues ².

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?

With the election on Tuesday, November 3, the dispute is likely to keep Israel in the closing argument of a Senate race both parties are watching ¹.

The Record

1. Oct 29, 2026Pelosi's podcast interview criticizing Mamdani and El-Sayed is published by Fox News ².
2. Oct 30, 2026Newsweek reports Pelosi's rebuke of El-Sayed and says it contacted his campaign for comment ¹.

Sources

1. Newsweek, “Nancy Pelosi Rebukes El-Sayed Over Israel: ‘It’s Wrong’” (2026-10-30). newsweek.com/nancy-pelosi-rebukes-el-sayed-over-israel-its-w
2. Fox News, “Pelosi calls Mamdani and El-Sayed's Israel views 'wrong' for Democrats | Fox News” (2026-10-29). foxnews.com/media/nancy-pelosi-calls-mamdani-el-sayed-past-c

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