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His name is Hasan Piker. He’s a socialist podcaster. And the New York Times described him last year as a Ryan Gosling-meets-Tom Brady type:
“Mr. Piker’s success on camera, in some part, has been aided by the fact that he is, by conventional standards, a very handsome man. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and built like a professional athlete, with a square jaw, a beard and a head of thick dark hair,” wrote Jack Crosbie.
“His physique is the result of an intense fitness regimen that, on a sunny morning in January, involved repeated sets of squats with a 275-pound barbell, Romanian dead lifts and walking lunge,” the profile continues. “He usually consumes only coffee until around 2 p.m., when he has his first meal of precisely 1.1 pounds of roasted chicken breast with low-carb pita, mezze and sauces.”
Crosbie’s profile is titled, “Hasan Piker: A Progressive Mind in a MAGA body.”
Ah, a progressive mind in a MAGA body. He’s got brains and brawn.
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel that left more than 1,200 dead, Piker said, “Oct. 7, and the responsibility of Oct. 7 and all the actions that took place are directly in the hands of the Israeli state.”
About reports that Hamas raped women: “It doesn’t matter if rapes happened on Oct. 7. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”
On Hamas itself: “[It’s] a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state [Israel].”
On Hezbollah: “I don’t have a problem with them … they are an effective resistance group against Israel.”
Piker to Jewish students at Columbia University last year: “You guys are all inbred.”
The comment was captured on video, which Piker played for his audience while laughing hysterically.
On his critics: “[They are] rabid ultra‑Zionist pigs.”
On the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al Qaeda that left nearly 3,000 dead across New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania: “America deserved 9/11.”
On Medicare fraud and what should happen to Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) as a result: “If you cared about Medicare fraud, you would kill Rick Scott.”
But the New York Times had no issue giving this maniac a 2,000-word profile. CNN gave him ample airtime on national television last week. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) have all appeared on Piker’s podcast. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had Piker headline a “Tax the Rich” rally this past weekend. And on Tuesday, Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) rallied with Piker at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
For mainstream Democrats wondering why the party is being seen as openly or tacitly antisemitic and out of touch with centrist voters, the embrace of Piker is Exhibit A.
Khanna, who may be entertaining a run for president in 2028, told Meet the Press on Sunday that he had no regrets about going on Piker’s podcast and would gladly do it again.
“Should we just have purity tests of canceling folks?” Khanna told moderator Kristen Welker when asked why he went on Piker’s program. “The lesson of the last election is we’ve got to be out there. We’ve got to engage. It’s a complex, messy, multiracial democracy. I will defend my views, but the people who are saying ‘don’t engage’ will cost us future elections.”
We saw just how much influence the antisemitic, anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party had during the 2024 election. Vice President Kamala Harris skipped over the obvious choice for running mate, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose approval was north of 60% in a state Harris had to win. She instead went with goofy Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Shapiro revealed in his recent book that Harris focused intensely on his views about Israel during the vetting process, even asking whether he’d ever been an agent of the Israeli government.
“Had I been a double agent for Israel?” wrote Shapiro, describing his incredulous response to a last-minute question from the vetting team. He responded that the question was offensive and was told, “Well, we have to ask.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the party’s lone staunchly pro-Israel senator, is incredulous over how more party members are appearing with Piker.
“Democrats have to decide, whose side are you on? Are you proud to stand with that kind of an individual or stand with Israel?” Fetterman asked during an interview with Fox’s Mark Levin. “I may have lost the socialist vote and the pro-Iran vote in my party, but that’s part of my party that’s growing, unfortunately.”
We’ve heard for years that the Left needs its own Joe Rogan in alternative media to compete with conservative podcasters on the Right. Rogan, of course, is the most popular podcaster out there, with an audience often north of 11 million per episode. The irony of this need for a “Joe Rogan of the Left” is that the Left already had Rogan in its corner as recently as 2020, when he endorsed Bernie Sanders for president.
Other podcasters are now openly urging Democrats to appear on Piker’s show, including former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett of Pod Save America, who practically begged Sen. Cory Booker (NJ) to do so in a recent interview. Lovett characterized Piker’s insane rhetoric as “stupid s***” that should be overlooked. Booker responded by claiming he hadn’t heard of Piker “until a few days ago,” while not dismissing the idea entirely, despite his spokesperson days earlier saying it would never happen.
And over at the Bulwark, podcast host Tim Miller, a former Republican who claims to be an independent, is also urging Democrats to sit down with Piker.
Some in our political class are truly morally upside down. In the not-so-distant past, the Hasan Pikers of the world would be condemned, shamed, and dismissed.
But with so many swing districts being decided by razor-thin margins, campaigns are all about a means to an end. In the words of the late Raiders owner Al Davis: “Just win baby!”
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER’S TERRIBLE GAMBLE
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal by Jonathan Cowan and Lily Cohen of the center-left think tank Third Way, the two authors argued Democrats need to draw a line with Piker, given the “surge of antisemitism.”
“There’s no excuse for putting political tribalism before Jewish safety. Or for overlooking hatred to generate likes online. Or for failing to act against the surge of antisemitism, spread by the Hasan Pikers of the world and normalized by too many on the Democratic side,” they wrote. “We’re all for a big tent. But the Democratic Party needs to draw a line in the sand. Hasan Piker and his fellow Jew-haters belong on the other side.”
Amen.
But in a world where clicks and likes trump principle and honor, it’s safe to say Piker will see his influence only grow for all the wrong reasons.
