The divide in the Democratic Party further widened this week when Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) publicly said that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “isn’t speaking for our party.”
As – News previously chronicled, Zohran Mamdani holds extremely far-left positions, most specifically on private property and Israel, with some questionable views on the Jewish state. Since coming within striking distance of becoming the mayor of New York City, moderate Democrats have been sounding the alarm. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Adam Smith attempted to distance Mamdani from the rest of the party.
“Look, the mayor of New York has never, never, ever been the leader of the Democratic Party,” Smith said when asked about Mamdani.
Smith then played off Mamdani’s prominence as being the result of the Democrats’ “Big Tent” platform.
“Mamdani isn’t speaking for our party, any more than I’m speaking for our party. It’s a big tent. It’s a big coalition,” he said before attacking President Donald Trump on his “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“He says he has secured the border. He’s spending all this money now on going around and terrorizing communities with high-profile ICE raids, which are not effective, which has turned people against him on immigration,” Smith said.
Smith encouraged Democrats to stay on message and not consider Mamdani the leader of their party.
“We, Democrats, have a message, and we have a message to deliver. And I’ll tell you this. The mayor of New York, no matter who he is, is not going to be the leader of our party. And we still need to stay focused on those issues,” he said.
Jewish Democrats also denounced Mamdani for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” while refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
“To not be willing to condemn the term ‘globalize the intifada,’ it just demonstrates his callous disregard for antisemitism, terrorist activity,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
“Anyone that I care about couldn’t possibly distance themselves from him more,” Wasserman Schultz added. “It’s really terribly disturbing and potentially dangerous.”
Fellow Jewish Democrat lawmaker Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said Mamdani is “either ignoring or gaslighting the public” when he said “globalize the intifada” is “a peaceful call.”
“I think he’s wrong on all those things,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). “If he can’t tell people ‘globalizing the intifada’ — if he can’t say that that’s antisemitic, then obviously he’s going to continue to add to the problem, not deflate it.”
