On Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said that if Democratic U.S. Senate candidate former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed — who recently said that he thinks Israel’s government is as evil as Hamas — wins the primary in Michigan, “I would still want him to win over the Republican. The reality is that we need a majority in the Senate, and we’re a big tent party. And right now, we have to welcome everyone who wants to be a part of our party.”
Guest host Batya Ungar-Sargon asked, “You do see Democrats understanding, I think, that the abolish ICE discourse is toxic, that there’s a very healthy middle ground between, let’s say where President Trump is, if you don’t like mass deportations, and then the kind of far left abolish ICE side of things, that I see a lot of Democrats sort of trying to inhabit that space, yourself included, we’ve talked about this at great length. I just don’t see the same thing happening when it comes to Israel. It seems like there are very few Democrats willing to say, no, Israel is a great ally, I may have my differences with the current administration there, but, obviously, there should be two parties in America that are pro-Israel parties, do you disagree with me?”
Subramanyam answered, “No. And I think that some of the rhetoric I’m seeing, from the left and the right, concerns me, things like equating any action of Netanyahu to all Jewish people, for instance, some of the rising antisemitism I’m seeing in the country, it is concerning to me. And I’m just trying to remind some of my colleagues that it’s really important to understand the history of what’s gone on, the history of how Israel came about and how they’ve had to defend themselves from many other countries and why they’re our ally in the first place. With that said, I’m upset with Netanyahu and some of the things that he has done, and I am no fan of his, and so I think there’s definitely [concern] about the current leadership in Israel, but they are still our ally. And, right now, we’re in a joint operation with them in a war.”
Ungar-Sargon then asked, “If Abdul El-Sayed wins, do you feel comfortable telling Jewish Democrats, Jewish Michiganders that this is a person they should vote for?”
Subramanyam answered, “I would still want him to win over the Republican. The reality is that we need a majority in the Senate, and we’re a big tent party. And right now, we have to welcome everyone who wants to be a part of our party. And so, that includes him. And so, I would want him to win in a general election if he was the nominee.”
Earlier, Subramanyam said that he’s supporting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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