Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Sunday characterized scrutiny of far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s remarks, including one where he stated he would vote for Hamas over Israel, as an “irrelevant distraction.”
Raskin made the comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when pressed by host Kristen Welker about divisions within the Democratic Party concerning El-Sayed's association with Piker. Welker played a clip of Piker stating, “I’m a harm reduction voter. I’m a lesser evil voter, and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.”
“I don’t even know if Hasan Piker considers himself a Democrat,” Raskin said. “I think all of that is an irrelevant distraction. Obviously, nobody supports Hamas, a terrorist organization which brutally attacked Israel on Oct. 7.”
Piker has also drawn criticism for comments concerning American Jews, including a warning on a livestream that if they continued to present themselves as “singularly invested in Israel,” someone might eventually “take action” against them.
Amidst these controversies, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has faced pressure from some Democrats to distance himself from Piker, who endorsed El-Sayed and appeared at campaign events during the Democratic primary.
El-Sayed has resisted calls to fully disavow the streamer, stating his intention is to draw Piker's millions of listeners into the electoral process. “What I’m saying is there are 3 million people who listen to Hasan. I want to offer them a pathway into an electoral movement,” El-Sayed said in a recent interview.
Other political figures have weighed in on the matter. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called the attention on Piker “absolutely ludicrous,” while Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., suggested that Democrats should engage with Piker's audience despite potential disagreements.
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has pointed to Piker's growing role and support for socialist candidates as a potential liability for the Democratic Party heading into the November elections. "The Democrat Party is being driven off [a] cliff by socialists who are driving blindfolded while arguing about the view," Natalie Baldassarre, national press secretary for the RNC, said in a statement. "Unless Democrats hit the brakes, every candidate on the ballot will have to answer for socialists’ outrageous beliefs that will bankrupt our country and strip every American of safety, sanity, and freedom."