Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed brandished an unremorseful embrace of left-wing commentator Hasan Piker as the two traveled to state college campuses Tuesday to rally support from younger voters.
Piker, who once said that “America deserved 9/11” and called Orthodox Jews “inbred,” is roiling Democrats as he uses his large following online, built from his popularity as a Twitch streamer, to become a surrogate for progressive candidates like El-Sayed.
But El-Sayed, prompted whether he disavowed any of Piker’s past comments amid bipartisan accusations of elevating antisemitic views from the influential streamer, declined to distance himself from any of Piker’s controversial positions.
“I’m not here to disavow people’s views,” El-Sayed, standing beside Piker, told reporters while at Michigan State University for a rally. “This whole gotcha game, platform policing, cancel culture — I thought we were over it. … I just think that we need to get over this if we’re serious about winning elections.”
The progressive former Detroit health official’s association with Piker, who typically streams with candidates rather than stump for them on the trail, is emblematic of those in the party who see value in Piker’s younger online following that can bring additional exposure with would-be voters. Yet the perceived friendliness is also drawing warnings from some elected officials and candidates, including opponents on both sides of the aisle in the battleground Michigan Senate race, that Piker falls outside of mainstream discourse and espouses extremist views that should be ignored, particularly on U.S. support for Israel and other foreign affairs.
Piker downplayed the political fallout among Democrats from campaigning with El-Sayed, which he condemned as an orchestrated effort by the Democratic establishment to silence their authenticity against support for Israel and the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
“At the end of the day, I’m simply a megaphone. You can cancel me if you want, but the feeling is not going to go away,” Piker told reporters after a separate rally later in the day at the University of Michigan. “We’re two Muslim guys that represent the moral majority at the heart — at the center — of American politics right now on this issue.”
El-Sayed is in a hotly contested three-way Democratic primary battle with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, both of whom have condemned him for associating with Piker. So, too, has the presumptive GOP nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
“This is going to be kind of a good vs. evil type of race,” Rogers said in a campaign video posted Tuesday with Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH).
Much of the speeches offered by El-Sayed and Piker at the two college campuses centered on U.S. support for Israel. They rejected accusations that their criticisms amount to antisemitism, which critics in both parties allege, in addition to AIPAC, America’s largest pro-Israel lobbying group.
“It is not antisemitic to criticize a foreign government, and it’s not antisemitic to criticize a Super PAC that is intent on aligning our interests with a foreign government,” El-Sayed told reporters.
Piker livestreamed the entire day’s events nonstop to his more than three million Twitch followers, including the behind-the-scenes moments with El-Sayed, supporters, campaign staffers, and even the van ride between events. El-Sayed acknowledged that reaching Piker’s younger audience was what made him a valuable campaign asset in the closely watched toss-up Senate race.
DEMOCRATS SQUIRM AS THE LEFT EMBRACES CONTROVERSIAL STREAMER HASAN PIKER
“Part of the reason that it’s so important to me to be engaged with somebody like Hasan is because he’s talking to these folks every single day,” El-Sayed told reporters. “And if we’re serious about building a politics that unlocks for the folks who feel locked out, you got to be serious about going to the places where they actually are. They’re not watching MSNOW, they’re not watching CNN, they’re not watching Fox News. But they are listening and watching on screen.”
El-Sayed is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and was also joined on the trail Tuesday by progressive “Squad” members Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
