Tommy Vietor
Role at the time: Former Obama NSC staffer and Pod Save America cohost, in a post on X
Statement summary
Tommy Vietor, a Pod Save America cohost, called Netanyahu's video accusing Mamdani of inciting riots against New York Jews counterproductive, saying it would help Mamdani because of Netanyahu's own unpopularity, and called for voting Netanyahu out of office.
“This dumb video is helpful for @NYCMayor because everyone hates @netanyahu. Democrats hate him. Republicans hate him. Israel's supporters hate him because of what he's done to his country. Israel's critics hate him because of what he did to Gaza. Time to vote his ass out!”
Quote-tweeting a post about Netanyahu's video accusing Mamdani of inciting riots against New York Jews, Vietor called the video counterproductive and said Netanyahu should be voted out.
Why we used this label
On the confrontation between Mamdani's campaign against Netanyahu and Netanyahu's characterization of that campaign as hateful incitement, Vietor takes Mamdani's side by dismissing the specific video making that incitement accusation as "dumb" and self-defeating, rather than a credible charge. He does not argue the merits of whether Mamdani's campaign is accountability rather than hate-fomenting; his defense of Mamdani rests on discrediting Netanyahu's video and popularity rather than endorsing Mamdani's ICC-arrest push directly, which is why this is coded “Defended or excused” rather than a direct rebuttal of the incitement characterization.