Nancy Pelosi sat down with an old ad man to insist her party has no antisemitism problem.

Democrats have leaned on that same denial for years whenever a member crosses the line.

And Pelosi’s own verdict on one Senate hopeful just put an expiration date on it.

Pelosi Swore Nobody in Her Caucus Crosses the Line

US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) opened her defense with the family photo album. Appearing on the On Brand podcast with host Donny Deutsch, she said she has “more Jewish grandchildren than anybody in Congress.”

Deutsch is no MAGA plant. The longtime Democrat ad man and former MSNBC regular had just told her that part of her party “has just abandoned Israel and actually has tones of antisemitism.”

This is the same Donny Deutsch who once told MSNBC viewers that Trump’s border strategy amounted to a “let’s keep America white again” message. When a fellow with that résumé says the Democrat Party has a problem, the complaint isn’t coming from the Fox News green room.

Pelosi brushed it aside anyway. She said she does “not know of anybody” among Democrats in Congress “who is engaged in antisemitism,” and if any such members exist, “it’s only a few.”

Then she reached for an old standby, saying lawmakers sometimes “say things that they shouldn’t and can be interpreted that way.”

Interpreted. Hang onto that word, because it shows up again later.

But Deutsch kept pushing. “Yeah, when you say Israel doesn’t have the right to be a Jewish state, that’s antisemitic as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

“Who says that?” Pelosi asked.

Deutsch pointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Pelosi replied that she “can’t account” for what Mamdani says. Then Deutsch named Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee for Michigan’s open US Senate seat, who he said doesn’t believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state.

That one she couldn’t wave away. “It’s more than concerning, it’s wrong,” Pelosi said. “It isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. This new person, Michigan will see if he gets elected to Congress.”

Look at how she handled it. Pelosi condemned the view, then parked the man holding it outside the Capitol, as though a win in November wouldn’t carry him straight through the front door. And she knows exactly which building he’s trying to get into, since she said “Congress” herself.

Pelosi Ran This Same Play on Ilhan Omar in 2019

But nobody should act surprised. In early March 2019, US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said Israel’s allies pressure lawmakers into pledging “allegiance” to a foreign country, and the leading Jewish Democrats in the House wanted a resolution that simply condemned antisemitism.

They didn’t get one. Pelosi’s team rewrote the measure into a catch-all against Islamophobia, racism, white supremacy, and bigotry of every stripe, and the final draft never mentioned Omar by name, while several Democrats didn’t even see that final text until shortly before the vote.

“It’s not about her. It’s about these forms of hatred,” Pelosi told reporters at the time. She also said Omar may not have understood the full weight of her words and pinned the uproar on how people interpreted them.

There’s that word again.

The watered-down resolution sailed through 407-23, and Omar voted yes, which meant she condemned the very thing her critics accused her of doing. Then-Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) put his finger on the whole charade: “If this member was a Republican, their name would be in this resolution.”

One Senate Seat Could Bury Pelosi’s Neat Little Defense

And El-Sayed hasn’t exactly whispered his views. Asked by ABC News whether Israel counts as an American ally, he said an ally that “takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn’t be fighting is not an ally,” then added, “I think it’s time for us to realize that Israel is actually not our friend.”

During a debate with Republican Mike Rogers, El-Sayed wouldn’t commit to sending defensive weapons to Israel if Iran or another state actor attacked it, telling the moderator he objects to tax dollars “buying weapons for other countries.”

Pelosi calls his position wrong. But the rest of her party’s leadership calls him a must-win.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) endorsed El-Sayed one day after the August primary, even though El-Sayed beat Schumer’s pick, US Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI), and spent the race calling for new Senate leadership. Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Schumer, had sunk $30 million into the state by mid-September.

So Pelosi’s defense holds up fine right until the polls close. If El-Sayed wins, “the Democrats in the Congress of the United States” will include a senator who told a national TV audience that Israel “is actually not our friend.” Her alibi would expire the minute he raises his right hand in January.

And Pelosi won’t be around to rewrite it. She announced in November 2025 that she wouldn’t seek another term, so the woman vouching for every Democrat in Congress walks out of the building at the same moment El-Sayed could walk in.

Democrats Keep Treating It Like a Vocabulary Problem

Not every Democrat buys the shrug. Michigan state Representative Noah Arbit, a Democrat, has said he won’t vote for El-Sayed, and after the ABC interview he posted on X that the Jewish people form one people no matter where on earth they live.

But the party bosses keep running the same routine. A member says something ugly about Israel or its supporters, leadership calls it a misunderstanding and stretches the response until it covers everybody and names nobody, and the caucus moves on to the next fundraising email.

Blaming how listeners interpret a remark flips the whole thing upside down. The person who said it walks away clean, and leadership treats the folks who heard it like the ones with the problem.

Maybe one podcast answer makes a thin reed to hang all of that on. But Pelosi’s voting record fills in whatever the podcast left out.

In November 2023, the House took up a resolution censuring US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) that accused her of “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel,” and 22 Democrats joined Republicans to pass it.

The House clerk’s roll call lists Nancy Pelosi among the 184 Democrats who voted no.

Sources: Breitbart News, “Nancy Pelosi Trashes Abdul El-Sayed, Says His Radical Views Are ‘Concerning… We’ll See If He Gets Elected’”; NPR, “House Votes To Condemn Anti-Semitism After Rep. Omar’s Comments” (March 2019); Associated Press via WJLA, “Pelosi: House anti-hate resolution won’t mention Rep. Omar”; CNN, “House passes resolution condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination”; Office of US Representative Susie Lee, “House overwhelmingly passes broadened anti-bigotry measure”; Mediaite, “El-Sayed Straight Up Declares In ABC News Interview Israel Is ‘Not Actually Our Friend’”; Mediaite, “Donny Deutsch: Trump’s Press Briefing Stunt Was A ‘Let’s Keep America White Again’ Message”; Israel Hayom; The Jerusalem Post; Jewish Insider; Axios, “Scoop: Schumer’s super PAC doubles down in Michigan”; The Daily Wire; Office of the Clerk, US House of Representatives, Roll Call 622 (November 7, 2023); Fox News, “Pelosi announces she won’t seek re-election”