House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sidestepped a direct question Friday about whether he supports New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call for the United States to join the International Criminal Court and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, instead pivoting to a broad statement about the war in Gaza and the need for a two-state solution.
The exchange came during an appearance on CNN’s “OutFront,” according to a clip of the broadcast flagged by Breitbart News. Host Erin Burnett prefaced her question by noting that Mamdani, the newly elected Democratic mayor of New York, was “doubling down on his call for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to be arrested over the war in Gaza” and was “urging the United States to join the International Criminal Court, the ICC, to help make it happen.”
What Mamdani Said
Burnett then played video of Mamdani laying out his position, in which he said he believes the U.S. government should join the ICC and enforce the court’s warrants “for every one that has been issued.”
“And when it comes to the Prime Minister, it’s been issued for crimes — alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Mamdani said in the clip. He went further, describing Netanyahu as “the architect of a horrific genocide,” and adding, “If I had my say, the U.S. government would have joined the ICC, honored every single warrant that they’ve issued.”
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, who has rejected the court’s jurisdiction and the allegations against him.
With the video finished, Burnett turned to her guest with a simple, direct question: “Do you agree with Mayor Mamdani?”
Jeffries’ Response
Jeffries did not answer yes or no. Instead, he opened by distancing himself from the specifics of the mayor’s foreign policy advocacy, saying he has not spoken with Mamdani about “this particular foreign policy issue, or, for that matter, any foreign policy issue.”
He then offered praise for the mayor’s early tenure at City Hall, saying Mamdani “has done a great job” and “gotten off to a great start as Mayor of New York City, keeping the city safe and fighting for a more affordable New York.”
On the Middle East, Jeffries framed his position around two principles rather than the ICC question. “What’s clear to me is that, one, we can never allow another October 7 to happen, and we can never allow the type of death, devastation, and destruction that has occurred in Gaza over the last three years to happen,” he said.
He continued: “We need to figure out a path toward a just and lasting peace, with a safe and secure Israel, a Jewish democratic state, living side-by-side with a Palestinian state with dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
The answer left the underlying question — whether the top Democrat in the House backs enforcing an ICC warrant against a sitting Israeli prime minister — unanswered.
A Fault Line Inside the Party
The moment illustrates a narrowing but still uncomfortable gap at the top of the Democratic Party. Mamdani’s position reflects a strand of progressive opinion that has grown louder since the Gaza war began, particularly in Democratic-heavy urban strongholds where the party’s base has pressed elected officials to take a harder line against Netanyahu’s government. Jeffries’ response, by contrast, returned to language that has long been the party’s establishment default: support for Israel’s security paired with a two-state formula and humanitarian concern for Palestinians.
Notably, Jeffries did not criticize Mamdani for his remarks, nor did he endorse them. His comments about the mayor’s job performance served as a buffer, allowing him to avoid repudiating a prominent figure in his own party while declining to associate himself with a position that would put him at odds with pro-Israel constituencies and much of the party’s foreign policy leadership in Washington.
The non-answer also carries political weight given Jeffries’ role. As minority leader, he is the highest-ranking elected Democrat in the House and a potential future speaker. His willingness — or reluctance — to weigh in on the ICC question is read closely by both wings of a party that has spent much of the past three years arguing over how far to go in pressuring Israel’s government.
Why the ICC Question Is So Charged
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, and successive administrations of both parties have opposed the court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over Israeli officials. Mamdani’s call for Washington to join the court and enforce its warrants therefore asks the U.S. to reverse a long-standing bipartisan posture, not merely to criticize Israeli military conduct.
That makes it a difficult question for a national Democratic leader to answer in either direction. Saying yes would align Jeffries with a position that much of Congress, including many Democrats, rejects, and would mark a sharp break with decades of U.S. policy toward the court. Saying no would risk alienating the energized progressive voters who powered Mamdani’s rise in New York and who have demanded more confrontational stances from Democratic leaders on Gaza.
Jeffries chose neither, wrapping his answer in humanitarian concern and a restatement of the two-state position that has been Democratic orthodoxy for years.
What Comes Next
It remains unclear whether Jeffries will be pressed again on the specifics of Mamdani’s proposal, or whether the mayor’s push will gain traction among other elected Democrats. For now, the exchange stands as a snapshot of how national party leaders are handling a question — whether to treat the ICC’s actions against Netanyahu as something the United States should enforce — that they have generally preferred to leave unaddressed.
Burnett’s question was straightforward, and Jeffries had nearly three minutes of airtime to answer it. He used them to talk about October 7, Gaza’s destruction, and a two-state peace — but not about the warrant, the court, or the mayor’s demand that the United States act on it.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/10/03/jeffries-dodges-on-if-he-backs-mamdanis-call-to-join-icc-arrest-netanyahu/