Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg offered a starkly different answer from fellow Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on whether Israel or Iran poses a greater threat to the United States.
Buttigieg declared Wednesday that “Iran is our enemy; Israel is not” — even as he vowed to vote for El-Sayed in Michigan’s high-stakes Senate race.
Buttigieg, who moved from Indiana to Michigan in 2022, made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News’ “The Story” with Martha MacCallum, where he was asked to respond to El-Sayed’s refusal to identify Iran as the greater threat during a debate last week against Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers.
During the debate, El-Sayed dismissed the same question as a “ridiculous hypothetical,” then argued that both countries had “proven dangerous in their own way.”
“One at risk of attacking us. One getting us into wars we have no business fighting,” El-Sayed said.
MacCallum asked Buttigieg what his answer would have been.
“Yeah, Iran is our enemy. Israel is not. They’re an ally, so that’s pretty clear to me,” Buttigieg responded.
The exchange comes as El-Sayed, a leftist who won his party’s August primary for the open Senate seat in Michigan, faces Rogers in a closely watched contest that could help determine control of the Senate. El-Sayed has criticized American military support for Israel and argued that the United States should not be drawn into the wars of the Middle East.
Buttigieg, a potential 2028 presidential contender, did not abandon his party’s nominee despite the disagreement. He instead pivoted to the economy, accusing President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans of driving up costs through tariffs and the war with Iran.
The former Transportation secretary also argued that voters in Michigan were focused on affordability and health care rather than ideological disputes within the Democratic Party.
“There is no candidate — and for that matter, no human being — that I agree with 100% of the time,” Buttigieg said when MacCallum pressed him on El-Sayed’s positions. “But I will be voting for Abdul El-Sayed over Mike Rogers.”
Buttigieg argued that El-Sayed would work to expand access to health care, while Rogers had supported efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid.
El-Sayed’s comments have drawn scrutiny since the October 8 debate, when he also criticized U.S. support for Israel and declined to say whether he would support providing defensive weapons to the country if it were attacked by Iran.
“I don’t want our tax dollars buying weapons for other countries. I don’t know what’s so hard about that,” El-Sayed said during the debate.
Rogers, by contrast, said he would support providing defensive weapons to Israel and reiterated his support for the Jewish state. The Republican has sought to make El-Sayed’s foreign policy positions a central issue in the race.
Buttigieg’s own position on Israel has shifted recently as the Gaza war has become a growing fault line within the Democratic Party.
In 2019, Buttigieg described the U.S.-Israel relationship as a friendship in which Washington should seek to guide its ally toward better decisions. Last year, however, he said he would have supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) proposed restrictions on arms sales to Israel and argued that American military assistance should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis rather than renewed through another blanket, decade-long aid agreement.
In a 2025 interview, Buttigieg said the images of suffering in Gaza were horrifying and called for an end to the killing, the return of Israeli hostages, and unimpeded humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.
Those remarks came amid a broader Democratic reassessment of the U.S.-Israel relationship, with Left-wing lawmakers pushing for restrictions on weapons transfers and the recognition of a “Palestinian state.”
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