Meeting Netanyahu, Democratic senator calls Mamdani ‘worthless’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

This handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with US Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, at Blair House in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026. (Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO)
This handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with US Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, at Blair House in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026. (Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO)

Meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Democratic Senator John Fetterman calls New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani “worthless.”

“It’s been disappointing as a Democratic politician in how our party continues to behave,” says Fetterman, one of Israel’s most prominent supporters in the Democratic Party.

“And we had the culmination of that where that worthless mayor in New York saying these kinds of ridiculous claims.”

Mamdani called Netanyahu a war criminal and said he should be arrested over the war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly.

“As far as I know, I was the only Democrat that was proud to push that trash back,” says the Pennsylvania lawmaker.

Dressed in his trademark shorts and hoodie, Fetterman says he doesn’t understand where the Democrats “have arrived politically.”

“I’m proud to stand with Israel through everything,” he says, adding that he is “proud to remain the conscience of the Democratic Party.”

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