Fetterman labels Mamdani ‘clown’ over Netanyahu arrest threat

International Fetterman labels Mamdani ‘clown’ over Netanyahu arrest threat Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/23/26 6:59 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/23/26 6:59 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) a “clown” for floating the idea of arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes allegations.

“You are a mayor, dude,” Fetterman said about Mamdani in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “You’re a mayor. You can fix a pothole. You can take out the trash. But you can’t order people to arrest anybody any more than I could, or, you know, I could have him arrested if he goes to Pennsylvania.

“It’s a joke,” Fetterman added, “and he’s a clown.”

The Pennsylvania Democrat, who has become an increasingly strong supporter of Israel in the years since the start of the country’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, said Mamdani should “sit down,” accusing him of pandering “to the fringe.”

“And I know you’re angry at Netanyahu because he killed a lot of people you admire, whether — like that Sinwar, or Nasrallah or Khamenei in Iran,” Fetterman said, referring to former Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Fetterman made similar remarks Sunday on Fox News, telling host Maria Bartiromo that Mamdani was a “tough guy.”

“That’s really not your purview,” he said about the mayor. “You and I know that. Sit down.”

Mamdani said during the mayoral campaign last year that he would have Netanyahu arrested, following the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest in 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “other inhumane acts” against the Palestinian population in Gaza.

With Netanyahu scheduled to come to New York City for the annual United Nations General Assembly in September, Mamdani’s campaign promise has come under scrutiny.

He recently told The New York Times that he would follow the city’s laws. However, on Tuesday, he said the city does “not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”

“And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” Mamdani said in a video posted on the social platform X.

Israel and the U.S. are not subject to the rulings of the ICC, as both countries have never ratified the Rome Statute — the treaty that created the ICC — and do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction over its citizens, service members or government officials.

Netanyahu, with an Israeli Knesset election looming in October, has rejected the ICC’s arrest warrant and denied wrongdoing. His office, in response to Mamdani’s threat to arrest the prime minister, called the ICC a “kangaroo court.”

“Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement last week. “Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”