Joe Scarborough Accuses ADL Chief of ‘Blurring’ Lines with Pointed Zohran Mamdani Snub

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough called out Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief Jonathan Greenblatt on Wednesday, accusing him of “blurring and blending” the line with his pointed snub of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s outreach to the Jewish community.

Greenblatt appeared on MSNBC hours after Mamdani’s electoral victory to announce his anti-semitism watchdog had launched a “Mamdani Monitor” to track with the new mayor’s policies and explained to Jewish Insider that the move came because the Democrat’s campaign “promoted antisemitic narratives.”

During his Morning Joe appearance on Wednesday, Greenblatt said that Mamdani had publicly stated he “will not work” with the ADL and cited the mayor-elect’s commitment to boycotts of Israel before he made a direct appeal into the camera to Jewish New Yorkers: “We have your back and we will hold Mayor-elect Mamdani accountable!”

As he added that his organization had seen “levels of anti-Jewish hate that literally have broken records every year” that his job was to keep Jewish people safe.

He then listed instances of violence against Jews, including the attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home and “an elderly person firebombed” in Colorado.

Scarborough, however, pushed back on whether Mamdani actually supported that violence and accused the ADL chief of “blurring” the lines around the Democrat:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: We’re all shocked and we all find this abhorrent. And I’m sure that the next mayor would say the same thing, wouldn’t he?

JONATHAN GREENBLATT: You have to ask him.

SCARBOROUGH: I think he has said the same thing. I don’t know, I think you have to. I think you look at the fact that he has gone to one high holiday service after another. He is talking to the Jewish community.

GREENBLATT: That’s not exactly right. He went to anti-Zionist synagogue, which is like going to the black breakout at CPAC and saying, you understand African Americans. I mean, come on.

SCARBOROUGH: You’re saying he hasn’t talked to the Jewish community?

GREENBLATT: I don’t know of a mainstream – now, look, he has been to synagogues. He has Jewish people working for him, for sure. Right? But if you look at the biggest institutions that represent Jewish New Yorkers, I have yet to see him engage with any of those. Now, my hope is the mayor elect will do so in the days and weeks to come. But in the meantime –

SCARBOROUGH: But you’re not suggesting that he supports the firebombing in Colorado?

GREENBLATT: Joe I never said that!

SCARBOROUGH: No, but you know –

GREENBLATT: Let me be clear –

SCARBOROUGH: No! There’s a lot of blurring and blending here, Jonathan. And, you know, I love you and you’re on all the time. And we’re always a fierce defender of yours. But you seem to be like, blurring a lot of things together and then looking into that camera and saying: ‘Call us! We’re going to make sure that he doesn’t support the –’

GREENBLATT: I say to Jewish New Yorkers: ‘Call us if you feel unsafe.’ I say to Jewish New Yorkers: ‘Call us if you are harassed.’ And so –

SCARBOROUGH: How about you calling his team? Mamdani’s team? Or how about talking to people who may know him and you? Talk to Reverend Al [Sharpton]. Maybe you guys can get together and have lunch and talk. Isn’t that a more constructive thing to do? Talk right here?

GREENBLATT: That would be great.

SCARBOROUGH: Reverend Al will do it. Come here. Talk right here.

GREENBLATT: But I won’t be – look, like I am willing to have conversations, hard conversations. Because my job is to keep the community safe. But let me be clear: I’m not accusing him of those things. What I want to make sure is he doesn’t create an environment where Jewish people are unsafe. He doesn’t create an environment where global intifada becomes a mantra.

SCARBOROUGH: And if he does, we will be the first, as you know, we’ll be the first to call him out.

Watch above via MSNBC.