Given the chance to walk back some of his most incendiary commentary on an episode of the “Pod Save America” podcast released Sunday, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker instead doubled down on his support of Hamas and other inflammatory rhetoric. 

“This [quote] is from January,” host Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter to President Barack Obama, told Piker in a segment looking back on some of Piker’s comments that have been picked up by national media. “‘Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler colonial apartheid state,’” Favreau quoted.

Piker responded quickly, “I stand by that.”

Favreau then said, “[T]his is the one that bothered me most when I first heard it …. Even if you believe what happened in Gaza is genocide and what’s happening in the West Bank is apartheid, those are different claims from ‘Hamas is a thousand times better,’ because Hamas is an organization that has massacred, raped, kidnapped civilians on Oct. 7. They’ve also been catastrophic for Palestinians by almost every measure. … Do you actually mean that or is that a rhetorical move or like a solidarity signal?”

“I mean, it’s all of the above. I do mean it,” Piker responded. “I’m a lesser-evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” He described Hamas as a “paramilitary organization that has like a political party as well, a politburo as well, that is entirely comprised, not as an alien force, but of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point.”

“So my perspective on this has always been that I think that Hamas’ tactics, which I oppose at times, or its like internal governance issues, are secondary to the conversation,” he continued. “And it makes me feel silly to consistently talk about what Hamas has done, especially when there has been an Oct. 7 times a thousand, if not more than a thousand at this point, in the hands of Israel against the Palestinian population in its entirety. I mean, they’re doing an Oct. 7 to Lebanon right now as we speak.”

Piker also reiterated his denunciations of Zionism, calling it “an ethno-religious supremacist ideology that is exterminationist” and comparing it to Nazism. 

The streamer invoked the often-misused claim that Albert Einstein had made the same comparison, which is based on a letter to the editor of The New York Times published on Dec. 4, 1948, signed by nearly 30 liberal intellectuals of their time, including Einstein, who called the rise of Menachem Begin’s new right-wing political party Herut, which later became part of Likud, “closely akin … to the Nazi and Fascist parties,” but did not condemn Zionism as a whole. 

About his comment that the U.S. “deserved” 9/11, Piker affirmed he believes that “we have been messing around in the Middle East for upwards of 60 years, and that’s precisely the reason why 9/11 happened, and that’s precisely the reason why these guys say ‘death to America’ in Iran, for example.” 

But, he said, “it was a heated response … and people will consistently use that against me over and over again.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the federal government to “immediately” pull funding from Yale University over Yale Political Union’s decision to host Hasan Piker, an antisemitic streamer who previously suggested that the senator should be killed. Piker is scheduled to speak on campus Tuesday for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire.”

Scott, who spoke last year at YPU, a storied debate society at the Ivy League university, wrote on X on Friday that “Yale receives billions from the federal government —  President Trump and Congress need to IMMEDIATELY revoke it.”

Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer, has recently been invited to speak at several high-profile events, despite a laundry list of antisemitic, anti-American and terror-supporting rhetoric, which includes justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. He has also called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11. 

For Scott, Piker’s incendiary language is personal; the streamer was briefly suspended from Twitch last year after urging followers to “kill Rick Scott.” 

“An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers,” Scott wrote. 

Asked about YPU hosting Piker, a spokesperson for Yale told Jewish Insider last week ​​that “student organizations are responsible for issuing their own invitations to speakers.”

“At the same time, Yale is committed to maintaining a diverse, vibrant, and respectful community in which free expression is a fundamental value and a shared responsibility. The university is dedicated to providing a space where differing views can be expressed and heard respectfully,” the spokesperson said.

Unlike several Ivy League counterparts, including Harvard and Columbia, the Trump administration has not slashed Yale’s federal funding over antisemitism concerns. 

The Yale Political Union, a storied debate society at the Ivy League university, is slated to host antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker on campus on Tuesday for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire,” according to the organization’s social media.

YPU — a registered student-run group, which is the oldest and largest collegiate debate society in America, according to its website — has hosted a range of elite figures such as former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter; media figures like Walter Cronkite and George Stephanopoulos; and leading intellectuals including economist Milton Friedman and Margaret Mead. 

Several alumni of the institution have held prestigious roles in politics, media and law, including former U.S. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and former Secretary of State John Kerry. 

A spokesperson for Yale University told Jewish Insider ​​that “student organizations are responsible for issuing their own invitations to speakers.”

“At the same time, Yale is committed to maintaining a diverse, vibrant, and respectful community in which free expression is a fundamental value and a shared responsibility. The university is dedicated to providing a space where differing views can be expressed and heard respectfully,” the spokesperson said.  

Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer, has recently been invited to speak at several high-profile events, despite a laundry list of antisemitic, anti-American and terror-supporting rhetoric, which includes justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. He has also called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11. 

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing criticism from fellow Democrats and Jewish leaders for hosting rallies with Piker at two Michigan universities last week. 

Uri Cohen, executive director of the Slifka Center, Yale’s Hillel, told JI that “as an organization that holds foundational commitments to the free exchange of ideas — even those with which we deeply disagree — Slifka maintains that there must be a clear line between engaging with difference and platforming hate speech. We expect that Yale will continue to enforce applicable university policies to make sure that line gets reinforced for the good of Yale’s Jewish community and the larger campus as a whole.”

YPU did not respond to a request for comment from JI about its decision to host Piker. 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) has lately been saying that she does not take money from AIPAC or any corporate political action committees. So when a college student asked her at a town hall in Cincinnati on Thursday about $4.5 million she has received from “pro-Israel lobbies,” Slotkin pushed back — arguing the student was unfairly lumping together all Jewish donors. 

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to on ‘not AIPAC but the Israel lobby.’ If you’re equating ‘Israel lobby’ to Jews, I got a problem with that,” Slotkin said. 

The figure that the Xavier University student quoted comes from a far-left organization called Track AIPAC, which targets elected officials who it alleges have received funding from the “Israel lobby.” But increasingly, the group is tallying up donations from “lobby donors,” a broad category that critics believe includes any Jewish donors who have also supported AIPAC, J Street or other Jewish or Israel-related advocacy groups. 

Slotkin said that just as Iranian Americans, for instance, may not agree with everything the Iranian government does, “I think it’s really important, especially now, to make a distinction between the Israeli government and the choices that they’re making and the average Jew, okay, and Jewish people who donate to campaigns,” Slotkin said, earning applause from the audience. 

At the end of the event, she stood by her response to the question when asked about it by another attendee.

“What I take issue with is someone saying that I took $4.5 million from the pro-Israel lobby. That’s not AIPAC. I don’t know what that is,” she said. “But if that’s counting Jewish donors and saying Jewish donors are somehow the same as ‘pro-Israel lobby,’ I got a problem with that, and not just as an elected official, as a Jew.” 

Asked her position about taking money from AIPAC, Slotkin said she doesn’t accept AIPAC funding in the same way she eschews other “corporate PAC money.” But she said their work in Washington, of advocating for an issue by building relationships with members of Congress, is the same thing that scores of other groups do.

“I think Americans have the right to support those groups and do whatever they want. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with them. I don’t personally take money from AIPAC. I haven’t in many, many years,” Slotkin said to cheers. “But they and every other organization have an ecosystem in Washington, that they are doing things that every — there’s plenty of groups like them that do the very same thing, a Pakistani American group, or whatever group.” 

After the town hall, Slotkin told Politico that she would not do an interview with Hasan Piker, the antisemitic Twitch streamer who appeared at two campaign rallies earlier this week with progressive Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. 

“I gotta call balls and strikes, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, coming from the state that I come from, so that’s what I’ve tried to do as he’s come into Michigan,” Slotkin said. 

The comments Piker has made with which she takes issue, Slotkin continued, are “some derogatory things he’s said about Orthodox Jews, saying that we deserve 9/11, there’s some things in there. Not to mention he calls me stupid like every other week.” 

At a Tuesday night event with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker at the University of Michigan, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed doubled down on claims that the man who attacked Temple Israel in West Bloomfield last month did so as a result of the pain he felt from the war in the Middle East. 

“Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,” El-Sayed, a Democrat, said at a press conference alongside Piker, with whom he appeared at two campaign rallies in Michigan on Tuesday. “I also think it’s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here, and if we stand against violence, we’ve got to stand against violence, all violence.” 

El-Sayed’s comments reiterated a sentiment he expressed the day after a Lebanese American man drove a car packed with explosives into the synagogue. No one lost their lives in the incident. The assailant, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting at a security guard, had family members killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon — including his brother, a commander in Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia. 

Since El-Sayed’s initial statement, more details surrounding the attack have surfaced. The FBI said the attack was “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community.” 

When a reporter from The Free Press pressed El-Sayed on his claim, asking whether a similar argument would have allowed sympathy for a Jewish person attacking a mosque after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, he suggested the circumstances were not the same. 

“After Oct. 7, there was a whole genocide against Palestinians,” El-Sayed said.

Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, leftist streamer Hasan Piker and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Summer Lee (D-PA) dismissed criticism of Piker and his past antisemitic and anti-American comments at a rally at the University of Michigan on Tuesday — El-Sayed’s second event of the day with the controversial social media influencer.

The El-Sayed endorsers all brushed off the criticism of Piker’s record of antisemitic comments, support for terrorism and other controversial activity as a distraction from their message and other issues of the day, including the war in Iran.

“A lot of the people that are on the Republican side, the reactionary side, they, instead of talking about [the war in Gaza], decided to talk about me stumping for Abdul El-Sayed instead,” Piker said, dismissing criticism of him — which has come from Democrats as well — as a distraction.

Piker referred to the war in Iran as “Operation Epstein’s Fury” and the Trump administration as “a bunch of fascist monsters that got tuned up by Israel,” and closed out his remarks with “Free Palestine.”

“Every single dollar that is spent on a bomb is stolen from each and every one of you. That’s $1 that they spend blowing up a school overseas instead of building schools in your neighborhoods,” he continued, going on to blame support for Israel for the lack of universal healthcare in the United States, and to claim that U.S. taxpayers are paying for Israel’s healthcare system.

El Sayed said that he had heard that a pro-Israel group on campus planned to protest the rally — to boos from the crowd — but El-Sayed said that the group would be welcome in the room “because at the end of the day, we believe in the courage of our convictions and our ideals.”

During his remarks, El-Sayed took numerous swipes at AIPAC, accusing the pro-Israel advocacy group of “corrupting our entire politics.” He said he expects the pro-Israel organization will be the largest spender in the Senate primary — though it has not yet announced any plans to engage in the race and has never before spent money in a Senate campaign. 

He called the war in Iran “genocidal, illegal, unjustifiable” and accused fellow Democrats of hypocrisy for saying that they view the war as illegal but declining to rule out voting for supplemental funding to support the war effort.

He also insisted — in spite of his promotion of Piker — that he would be a strong voice against antisemitism, pointing to his own background as a Muslim and his “love and reverence” for all people.

Tlaib said she’d told Piker backstage that he would always be welcome in Michigan.

“The fact that, literally, they’re all like, ‘Defend our democracy. Oh, shut up, cancel him’ — make up your damn mind,” Tlaib said, addressing critics of Piker. “Make up your godd*** mind. We’re for everybody in the room or not. Give me a break.”

Tlaib praised El-Sayed as someone closely aligned with her anti-Israel views, including support for blocking aid to the Jewish state. 

“I’ve been there seven years, and I’m tired of having to beg my colleagues to do the right thing, to not take money from the people that hurt us, not to literally spend resources and funding like this for war and destruction and death,” Tlaib said. “If any member of Congress or Senate can support a genocide like that, what else are they supporting right here in our backyard at home.”

Lee, like Piker and El-Sayed, dismissed the controversy over the rally as an attempt by people “who don’t want us talking to people who might rock the boat” to silence and stop the rally.

Other speakers at the rally included UM regent candidate Amir Makled, an attorney who provided pro bono representation to anti-Israel protesters at the university who faced criminal charges for their role in the demonstration, Summit Louth, the newly elected president of UM’s student government and Yousef Rabhi, a county commissioner.

“It was right here on this campus that students were punished for speaking out at the Diag, and it was right here on this campus where that outrage, the irreprehensible conduct of our Board of Regents punished students for speaking out against the genocide that students were charged with felonies just for the words of ‘free Palestine,’” Makled claimed.

Among other issues, Louth praised El-Sayed for calling the war in Gaza a genocide and for condemning the war in Iran and the Israeli operations in Lebanon.

“As we all saw this morning, the deranged president of this country issued a genocidal ultimatum on an entire country. F*** him. F*** that. We need to take our country back,” Rabhi said. “Instead of putting forward money to pay for your tuition, they are bombing people halfway across the world. Instead of paying money to make sure that we have single payer universal health care in this country, they are murdering innocent people. “

Hasan Piker, the far-left, antisemitic streamer, was recently asked by Politico who his favorite presidential candidates are for the Democratic nomination in 2028. He offered a few unsurprising names: progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain… and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), the mild-mannered purple-state senator up for reelection this year.

Piker, in the interview, called Ossoff, “my dark-horse pick, depending on how he presents himself if he has ambitions for higher office.”

But does Ossoff, a Jewish senator who is facing a tough reelection in a state President Donald Trump carried twice, return Piker’s affections? His team has been unresponsive about his views on Piker, even as some leading Democrats have spoken out against the influencer and kept their distance.

Multiple spokespeople for Ossoff didn’t respond to several inquiries this week from JI. 

Ossoff’s silence about Piker could strain his already rocky relationship with Georgia’s Jewish community. Key Jewish leaders and donors have repeatedly expressed outrage with the senator over his votes in favor of resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, and some have threatened to withhold support from his presidential campaigns.

Piker’s record is well-documented at this point. He said America deserved the 9/11 attacks, repeatedly described Orthodox Jews as inbred, downplayed sexual assault on Oct. 7, said he supports Hamas over Israel, hosted a friendly interview with an alleged Houthi terrorist and laughed at Jewish students who faced antisemitism on college campuses. 

It’s a record that’s led a number of Ossoff’s colleagues in Congress to speak out. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, called Piker an “unapologetic antisemite.” 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Michigan Senate candidates Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow have also condemned Piker. Leaders of major Jewish groups have also denounced the streamer, urging lawmakers to keep their distance from him.

It may be hard for Ossoff to remain silent on an issue that is separating more mainstream Democrats from the far left. And Georgia isn’t just a swing state, but one with a sizable Jewish population. 

Ossoff and his staff’s silence is surprising, given the growing salience of the issue of Piker’s extremism within the party. We’ll let you know if we hear back from the senator’s team. 

A useful rule of thumb to live by: Social media isn’t real life. 

But one of the challenges in the brave new world of media is that extremist influencers can often create the perception of influence simply by dominating so much of the online discourse. 

Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has been the subject of favorable media profiles despite a laundry list of antisemitic and terror-justifying rhetoric, is a case study in how traditional journalists normalize extremists — and how politicians conclude there’s a marketplace for radical views in the electoral marketplace, even when it’s typically a mirage. 

In part because Democrats have been desperate to find anti-establishment voices that claim to speak for young men, Piker is seen as a popular, edgy podcaster by liberal leaders in both media and politics. (Nevermind the fact that Piker gets only about 36,000 viewers on a typical stream — about 1/25th of the typical nighttime audience of MS NOW, as The Atlantic’s David Frum pointed out.) 

The New Yorker invited Piker to speak at its annual festival, treating the antisemitic streamer as just another one of the many thought leaders in attendance. Leading progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), joined him at rallies and on his show.

And a handful of leading Democratic presidential contenders — most notably California Gov. Gavin Newsom — expressed interest in going on his show. 

This, despite the fact Piker has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, forcefully denied some of the terror group’s atrocities, has called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11. 

Any one of those comments on their own would have typically disqualified anyone from playing a part in our political discourse. Yet in the wave of glowing profiles, Piker’s antisemitism and anti-Americanism didn’t even merit a mention. 

It wasn’t until March 19, when Third Way President Jon Cowan and Lily Cohen, a press advisor from the center-left think tank, took the initiative to co-write a column for The Wall Street Journal calling out Piker’s antisemitism without any caveats. The decision to call out the crazy — when few in the press or politics had the courage to do so — was a moment that proved that one principled voice in defense of normalcy can break the mirage of those who believe there’s a political marketplace for this garbage. 

The op-ed, headlined “Democrats Are Too Cozy with Hasan Piker,” generated outsized attention, in a way that previous efforts to spotlight Piker’s antisemitism hadn’t. Reporters who once gave Piker a free pass were now asking Democrats whether they agreed with his extremist positions. 

Suddenly, when presented with his indefensible comments, some Democrats started building up enough courage to speak out against him. First, it was Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), head of the moderate New Democratic Coalition, who called Piker an “unapologetic antisemite.” Then, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, told JI that Piker is “somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks” — and called on one of her primary opponents, Abdul El-Sayed, to cancel a scheduled rally with him. 

Even left-wing lawmakers and candidates — such as Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and a progressive Democratic state legislator from Michigan — canceled scheduled appearances with Piker.

By the end of the month, only three of the 14 prospective Democratic presidential candidates that Politico interviewed said they would appear on a livestream with Piker if invited. That marks a sea change from just weeks earlier, when he was being treated as the trendy fad in progressive politics. 

The dynamic is a reminder that the delusions of a social media echo chamber will persist unless they get confronted by political reality. Sometimes that reality is as simple as speaking up against craziness when everyone else is afraid to speak the truth. 

It would be heartening to conclude that this episode is proof that antisemitism can be confronted when good people speak up. 

But this past week also featured Politico publishing a virulently antisemitic cartoon that could have been drawn from the Nazi tabloid Der Sturmer — one that they pulled from their website and apologized for. This is the same publication, owned by Axel Springer, that gave Piker a credulous interview last year making no mention of his extremism. (And last week, it also blatantly misrepresented leading Democrats’ comments on AIPAC to manufacture an anti-Israel narrative.)

It all goes to show that the antisemitic rot fueled by social media is entering into the mainstream. It will take more brave and principled voices like Cowan and Cohen to stem the tide.

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman, said that Democratic lawmakers and candidates should not associate with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a record of antisemitism and support for terrorism.

His comments come at a time when a small but growing group of Democrats has begun speaking out against Piker, particularly as he’s set to join a far-left Michigan Senate candidate on the trail. 

Deutch drew parallels between Piker on the far left and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes on the far right.

“In both cases, each party should make clear that voices that aren’t representative of their parties have no place in an official campaign setting — shouldn’t be welcomed, shouldn’t be welcomed in to share their views,” Deutch said. “In Piker’s case, his record speaks for itself, the same with Nick Fuentes. I don’t need to go into details about who they are or what they represent. Neither one of them belongs in the middle of the political process as a result of candidates choosing to put them there.”

He said he’s expressed that view to candidates on both sides of the aisle and would keep those conversations private, but “my hope is that we’ll see some clarity on that issue going forward.”

“The challenges that we’re facing now with increasing polarization and the rise of extremism on the edges of both political parties is bad enough. Injecting the views of antisemites into that mix and welcoming those views is dangerous,” Deutch said.

A nasty intraparty divide intensified this week as Democrats publicly debated whether to associate with Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who has faced criticism for antisemitic commentary and pro-Hamas rhetoric, among other extreme remarks.

The dispute erupted Tuesday after Piker revealed that he would join Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, for two upcoming rallies in the state, marking the Twitch streamer’s first major campaign appearance of the midterms.

For mainstream Democrats increasingly troubled with Piker’s rising influence on the left, El-Sayed’s decision was particularly alarming. In a statement on Tuesday, Jonathan Cowan, president of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, said Democrats’ associations with Piker are “morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating,” and alleged that candidates “eager to campaign with” him are, “at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a top moderate voice in the House, became one of the first prominent Democratic officials to speak out against Piker in comments on Tuesday, calling on the party to reject and distance itself from a figure he characterized as “an unapologetic antisemite.”

In a statement to social media, Schneider said Democrats “cannot allow those who preach hate and seek division to find safe harbor among us,” urging his colleagues to “call out hate and reject those who champion ideologies of exclusion and demonization.”

On Wednesday, El-Sayed faced further blowback from high-profile Michigan Democrats, including Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a top rival in the Senate race, who said “choosing to campaign with someone who has a history of antisemitic rhetoric” would not be a winning formula in the swing state. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) echoed that sentiment, saying Piker “sounds deeply antisemitic” and he is “not someone that should be helping anybody out in the Michigan political environment.”

A spokesperson for El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment asking if he had weighed Piker’s antisemitic rhetoric in choosing to appear with him. The Senate candidate has said he is unconcerned with backlash to his decision, while arguing that his “politics resonates with people who have been locked out.”

Piker, for his part, has appeared to relish the new controversy, calling Schneider an “AIPAC dog” in an X post. “Democrats that spend any amount of time chirping about me love israel [sic] more than defeating Republicans and preserving democracy,” he wrote in another.

Even as prominent progressives have come to Piker’s defense, none seem to have meaningfully reckoned with his record of extreme commentary, which features a range of offensive statements about Jews and Israel. He has labeled Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” compared Zionists to Nazis and dismissed reports of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. More recently, he unequivocally sided with Hamas, saying the terror group “is a thousand times better” than Israel — which he condemned as a “fascist settler colonial apartheid state” in a social media post last January to his 1.6 million followers.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), for instance, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has appeared on Piker’s show, said in mid-March that he is “proud” to join the streamer’s feed. But when asked to share his views on Piker’s antisemitic comments, Khanna — in keeping with other progressive elected officials and activists who likewise have ties to the influencer — has demurred, stating broadly that he condemns antisemitism while reiterating he has called Hamas a terrorist organization.

The debate over Piker raises questions about the meaning of progressivism as left-leaning figures have continued to tolerate and in some cases even condone Piker’s extreme commentary, which has frequently shown a penchant for illiberalism that is sharply at odds with traditional progressive values.

In addition to espousing antisemitism and using eliminationist rhetoric with regard to Israel, Piker has said “America deserved 9/11,” downplayed the U.S.-designated Uyghur genocide in China, voiced approval of Hezbollah, called Russia’s annexation of Crimea “justifiable” and endorsed political violence, among other radical sentiments regularly expressed on his Twitch stream and on social media.

Jeremiah Johnson, co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism, who has written critically about Democrats embracing Piker, said the fundamental issue with the streamer “is that he does not believe in liberal democracy.”

“I am generally in favor of a big tent for the Democratic Party,” he told Jewish Insider. “If we want to win large majorities, we’re going to have to accept that some of the people who vote for us will have idiosyncratic, outdated or even outright wrong and bigoted views. But that doesn’t mean we should make those voices the face of the party, and I think it’s a dangerous game for Democrats to promote people like Piker.”

Piker’s status otherwise underscores how some progressive leaders are increasingly aligning with extreme figures in the Democratic Party based on broad policy agreements, without fully accounting for the implications of ignoring or validating baggage that voters would likely find off-putting.

Last week, for example, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined a growing cohort of Democratic senators in endorsing Graham Platner, a far-left candidate running for Senate in the battleground state of Maine, saying he’s “got the grit to fight for what’s right on behalf of Maine’s working families — not billionaires and giant corporations.”

Her statement made no allusion to the lingering concerns over Platner’s now-covered Nazi tattoo — whose symbolism he claims not to have known until recently — even as she raised alarms last year about one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s tattoos that is reportedly linked to white supremacist ideology.

Warren’s team did not respond to a request for comment from JI asking if she had considered Platner’s tattoo while making her endorsement.

Some critics argue that progressives who overlook Piker’s disturbing record or dismiss Platner’s tattoo do so at their own peril. 

Shannon Watts, a prominent gun control activist who has vocally criticized both Piker and Platner, said it is “disheartening to watch some Democratic politicians and pundits align with the most morally vacant and dangerous people in our party, just as we watched happen on the right for over a decade.”

“Too many Democrats are deciding one compromise at a time that their political survival matters more than principle,” she told JI this week. “Anyone who embraces hatred cannot call themselves progressive; they are simply an emerging version of MAGA on the left. Aligning with and supporting antisemitic behavior is a moral stain on our party and a stark warning sign for our future.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), who chairs the moderate New Democratic Coalition, called on Democrats on Tuesday to reject and distance themselves from Hasan Piker, the far-left media figure boosted by an increasing number of Democrats and Democratic candidates.

Piker has faced repeated criticism for antisemitic comments and support for terrorism, in addition to a range of other offensive remarks and activity. Schneider, in addition to his leadership in the New Dems -— one of the largest groups in the House Democratic Caucus — is a co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus.

“Hasan Piker is an unapologetic antisemite,” Schneider said on X on Tuesday. “Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry, antisemitism, & hate when our own Members of Congress & candidates are celebrating or, worse yet, platforming those who espouse hate of any kind.”

Schneider said he is proud that the Democratic Party “welcome[s] a broad diversity of opinions and priorities. But we cannot allow those who preach hate & seek division to find safe harbor among us. We must call out hate & reject those who champion ideologies of exclusion and demonization.”

The moderate Democratic leader’s comments come on the same day that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed announced a rally alongside Piker, and after numerous other colleagues have appeared on Piker’s livestream show or defended him.

They also follow similar condemnation from Third Way, a prominent moderate Democratic group.

A prominent moderate Democratic think tank is continuing to call out Democratic candidates for being “too cozy” with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, who has been embraced by several left-wing Democrats in recent months.

In his latest statement, Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way, condemned Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for his upcoming rallies with Piker, first reported by Politico, set to take place on April 7 at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan alongside Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA).

“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said. “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it.”

Cowan referenced a Wall Street Journal editorial he co-authored with Third Way’s Lily Cohen last week, titled “Democrats Are Too Cozy With Hasan Piker,” in which the two urged Democrats to follow the lead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in calling out antisemitism in their own party.

“Piker’s depravity rivals that of far-right bigots. We will not defeat the surge of antisemitism in America without taking on its most influential proponents on our own side,” Cowan’s statement continued. “Embracing extreme bigots like Piker, who, for starters, has called religious Jews ‘inbred’ and said ‘America deserved 9/11,’ is not only dangerous and wrong, but antithetical to the urgent work of winning over the middle and defeating Trumpism.”

Other Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), have also embraced Piker, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently pledged to appear on Piker’s popular Twitch stream.

Far-left Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, appearing at the Web Summit conference in Doha on Tuesday, alleged that Israel’s conduct played a meaningful role in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks, continuing his long-standing pattern of hateful rhetoric targeting Israel and the Jewish people. 

“What I care about is maintaining my editorial independence and speaking truth to power, and the example I always go back to is in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” Piker said to a packed room. “People were not ready, especially in Western audiences, for someone to say that Israel played a significant role in how Oct. 7 took place.”

Speaking at an event labeled “Defending truth in a post-truth world,” Piker noted that he had lost viewers at the time over his extremist statements, but said he “stuck to [his] guns” and did not tone down his commentary. 

“A lot of people were understandably horrified by the images that they were seeing on their screens, and they said, ‘This is not for me. I’ve enjoyed your commentary up until this point.’ And they left,” said Piker. “If I cared about viewership, I would have stopped right then and there, and maybe even reconfigured my commentary.”

“But I didn’t do that,” Piker added. “I knew what the truth was, and I kept covering what was going on in Gaza every single day for two years, and eventually the audience came back.” 

Piker has previously argued that Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 were a form of “resisting,” referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and Zionists as Nazis and has praised former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “pretty brilliant person.” Piker has also described the conflict in Gaza as a “livestreamed Holocaust.” 

The streamer has faced several bans from Twitch over his commentary, most recently on Jan. 29, when his account was taken offline after he alleged that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were targeting anti-Israel protesters. He also referred to critics as “rabid ultra-Zionist pigs.” 

In response, Piker posted a statement on X listing what he alleged are permissible phrases for use on Twitch, but singled out that “you CANNOT say zionist pig.” 

“The ADL, which is an arm of Israel’s suppression in the west that works with law enforcement & does espionage has made it a bannable offense,” Piker wrote. 

Hasan Piker, a popular far-left influencer, has long withstood scrutiny for his antisemitic commentary and justification of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, continuing to boast millions of loyal followers while hosting prominent Democratic elected officials on his Twitch show.

But his recent remarks unequivocally siding with Hamas provide particularly clarifying insight into Piker’s extreme worldview, raising questions about the permission structure in the broader progressive movement that tolerates such views with little to no pushback.

In a social media post last week, Piker came to the defense of anti-Israel protesters who had explicitly expressed support for Hamas while demonstrating outside a synagogue in Queens that was hosting an event promoting Israeli real estate investment.

“Hamas is a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state and the real harm happening here is that another illegal stolen land sale is taking place at another synagogue!” he said on X, describing himself as “a lesser evil voter” who was simply repeating a “harm reductionist credo.”

While the protest drew belated criticism from progressive Israel critics such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), both of whom have appeared on Piker’s show, the streamer made clear he was not backing down.

In contrast with Ocasio-Cortez, who had accused the protesters of using “disgusting and antisemitic” language while targeting a “predominantly Jewish neighborhood,” Piker issued a defiant retort to his 1.6 million X followers. “‘Hamas is resisting against Israel because they’re antisemitic’ is the funniest lie people tell themselves,” he argued. “If Israel was a Christian nation managing the apartheid and ethnic cleansing they’d still fight. You’re just mad people are fighting back at all.”

“‘Can’t believe people are saying they support Hamas!’” Piker wrote in a separate post, feigning shock at the protesters’ chants. “Wait till you hear how you can openly support the IDF and Israel and still rub shoulders in polite society in spite of the livestreamed Holocaust we all witnessed,” he said. “We need to stop playing these games in 2026.”

Piker’s critics, however, often wonder how the controversial commentator has continued to thrive in the modern progressive movement in spite of his long record of antisemitic remarks. In addition to calling Orthodox Jews “inbred” and comparing Zionists to Nazis, Piker has forcefully denied some of Hamas’ atrocities, such as widespread reports of sexual violence, which he has dismissed as “rape fantasies” and “hallucinations.”

His new and unvarnished comments about Hamas helped lay bare his sympathetic views on the terror group — even as he has echoed such sentiments in previous remarks. “There’s no comparison between Israel and Hamas,” he said last May in one notable X post. “One is a militant resistance comprised of orphaned soldiers born into a 77 year occupation, the other is a ethnoreligious supremacist apartheid state w nukes doing a genocide backed by the USA!”

Though his views have stirred some controversy, Piker’s stature in progressive circles and beyond remains solid. He has drawn favorable profiles in mainstream media outlets that make little mention of his offensive statements. And he has received invitations to appear at such high-profile events as The New Yorker Festival and platforms including the “Pod Save America” podcast, hosted by a group of former Obama administration officials who have become influential voices on the left.

Meanwhile, Piker has attracted a range of leading progressive lawmakers to sit for interviews on his show — from Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

With the exception of Khanna, none of those lawmakers responded to requests for comment about Piker’s latest posts on Hamas, nor did the “Pod Save America” hosts, including Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor.

“I have called Hamas a terrorist organization and strongly believe they have no place in the future of Gaza or a Palestinian state,” Khanna said in a brief text message to Jewish Insider on Wednesday, but he did not directly address Piker’s comments when pressed.

Jeremiah Johnson, the co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism who has written critically on Piker’s radicalism and expressed concerns about his rising popularity in progressive politics, speculated that “a lot of Democrats boosting” the Twitch commentator “aren’t even aware of how extreme he is, because he lies constantly.”

“In interviews, podcast appearances or events he will play the ‘I’m just a guy who wants people to have healthcare’ card,” Johnson explained to JI on Wednesday. “If confronted he’ll downplay, deny or walk back extremist comments he’s made. And then he’ll go back to his own audience and keep praising Hamas or the Houthis or the CCP, or mocking Iranian protesters with racist voices.”

Johnson also pointed to an issue with what he termed “the Democratic staffer class, where the median Democratic staffer is so progressive they have a ‘no punching left’ rule — especially when someone like Hasan is attractive and has a large audience.”

As Piker’s ideology remains largely unchecked by progressive lawmakers and activists, other critics warn that the left’s acquiescence to his troubling views has already hurt its ability to meaningfully counter growing hostility to Jews and Israel from the far right.

“Hasan Piker is the Tucker Carlson of the progressive left, just dumber and better looking,” Jamie Kirchick, an author and commentator who frequently writes about Israel and Jewish issues, told JI. “As long as figures like Khanna, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Markey pal around with him, they forfeit any credibility attacking the New Right’s vile antisemitism.”

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, expressed disagreement on Thursday with comments by Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has said “America deserved 9/11,” after several months in which the state assembly member had declined to condemn such rhetoric.

“I find the comments that Hasan made on 9/11 to be objectionable and reprehensible,” Mamdani said during the first general election debate on Thursday night, where he traded barbs with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is trailing in the polls as he mounts an independent run following his primary loss to Mamdani in June.

Still, Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, defended his decision to appear on Piker’s show for an extensive interview during the primary — even as the streamer has otherwise frequently stirred controversy for using antisemitic rhetoric in his commentary on Israel and Jewish issues. 

“I also think that part of the reason why Democrats are in the situation that we are in, of being a permanent minority in this country, is we are looking only to speak to journalists and streamers and Americans with whom we agree on every single thing that they say,” Mamdani argued, while making no mention of Piker’s antisemitic comments. “We need to take the case to every person, and I am happy to do that.”

Piker has faced criticism for justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and forcefully denying some of the terror group’s atrocities — including widespread reports of sexual violence. In one notable stream last year, Piker said “it doesn’t matter if rapes f***ing happened on Oct. 7,” while adding that “the Palestinian resistance is not perfect.” He has also described Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and compared Zionists to Nazis, among other slurs seen as antisemitic.

Elsewhere during the debate, Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who was arrested in October 2023 during a ceasefire demonstration outside the Brooklyn home of then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declined to confirm that he would not participate in protests if he is elected mayor. “The important thing is to lead from City Hall,” Mamdani said. “That’s what I’ll be doing.”

Mamdani had faced intense backlash before the debate for comments during a Fox News interview released on Wednesday in which he avoided directly answering a question about whether Hamas should disarm and relinquish its leadership role in Gaza. He clarified at the debate that Hamas, as well as “all parties,” “should lay down” their arms but did not comment on its future role in the conflict.  

“I’m proud to be one of the first elected officials in the state who called for a ceasefire, and calling for a ceasefire means ceasing fire,” Mamdani said. “That means all parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons. And the reason that we call for that is not only for the end of the genocide, but also an unimpeded access of humanitarian aid.”

He added that “we also have to ensure that [the ceasefire] addresses the conditions that preceded this, conditions like occupation, like the siege and apartheid, and that is what I’m hopeful for.”

Mamdani, who has seen mixed results in his continued outreach to the Jewish community, also once again refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” — even as he reiterated that it “evokes many painful memories” for Jewish voters and reiterated he will “discourage” its usage.

Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who frequently stirs controversy for using antisemitic rhetoric in his commentary on Israel and Jewish issues, will join a roundtable discussion next month hosted by The New Yorker Festival, the publication announced on Wednesday in a full lineup of events.

The conversation on Oct. 26, which will focus on “how the internet has reshaped political life” and its implications “for the future of democracy,” will also feature Saagar Enjeti, a right-wing populist pundit who co-hosts the “Breaking Points” podcast. It will be moderated by Andrew Marantz, a staff writer for The New Yorker, who published a feature story last March about Piker’s popularity among an audience of young, male voters who have recently gravitated to the right.

Piker, whose videos on Twitch and YouTube reach millions of viewers, has faced criticism for justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, while forcefully denying some of the terror group’s atrocities — such as widespread reports of sexual violence that he has dismissed as “rape fantasies” and “hallucinations.”

In one stream last year, Piker, 34, argued that “it doesn’t matter if rapes f***ing happened on Oct. 7 — like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me even this much,” adding that “the Palestinian resistance is not perfect.”

He has also described Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” called a Jewish man a “bloodthirsty, violent pig dog” and compared Zionists to Nazis, among other slurs seen as antisemitic.   

His festival appearance drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which denounced The New Yorker’s “decision to platform Piker” as “the latest example of mainstream media normalizing his brand of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.”

The streamer’s “toxic and extreme rhetoric opposing Zionism and the Jewish state normalizes antisemitism, reinforces bigotry and launders terror — and it has no place at a conference devoted to prominent influencers,” an ADL spokesperson told Jewish Insider on Wednesday, arguing that Piker’s “extreme statements” on a range of topics “should permanently disqualify him from appearing at any major media festival.”

“His appearing at a festival alongside such notables as Salman Rushdie, who lived for decades under threat of death from the Iranian regime, is deeply ironic, considering that Iran supports Hezbollah and the Houthis, two groups that Piker has openly admired and celebrated,” the spokesperson added, referring to the British-Indian writer who is among several prominent guests now scheduled to join the event next month.  

A spokesperson for The New Yorker declined to comment when reached by JI on Wednesday. 

In his extensive online monologues, Piker has notably defended the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, compared the Houthis in Yemen to the hero of an anime show and characterized the Oct. 7 attacks as an inevitable response to “violent means of maintaining an apartheid,” among other extreme comments.

Piker, a fierce opponent of Israel’s right to exist, has more recently equated liberal Zionism with Nazism, according to a video of his remarks posted to social media last month.

“Zionism is an exterminationist ideology built around ethno-religious supremacist values,” he said in a conversation with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) at the Democratic Socialists of America’s convention earlier this month. “So when people say, like, ‘Oh, well, I’m a liberal Zionist, I want there to be a Jewish ethno-state,’ I’m like, OK, what do you mean? It’s like saying you’re like a liberal Nazi. Like, you want an Aryan majority ethno-state?”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has accused Piker of engaging in “textbook antisemitism” and called on Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, to cut ties with the streamer, describing his comments as a leading contributor to “an explosion of Jew-hatred on social media” in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Piker has rejected allegations of antisemitism, while insisting his views have been misconstrued as opposition to Jewish people rather than the Israeli government, a claim his critics have interpreted as disingenuous.

The streamer has otherwise mocked widespread concerns about rising global antisemitism — calling the issue a distraction from Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.

But even as he has faced backlash for promoting antisemitic rhetoric, Piker has continued to draw friendly profiles in mainstream outlets such as The New York Times and GQ magazine, which is owned by The New Yorker’s parent company, Condé Nast. He has also hosted several high-profile lawmakers on his streaming platform, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).

Piker did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about his planned comments for the roundtable next month. 

The New Yorker Festival, an annual multiday event in New York City featuring well-known figures in arts, media and politics, previously faced backlash in 2018 for inviting Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist to President Donald Trump who now hosts a popular MAGA-world podcast, to headline a conversation with the magazine’s editor, David Remnick.

Following major dropouts from participants who protested Bannon’s appearance at the festival — as well as internal objections raised by the magazine’s employees — Remnick announced he had decided to pull the invitation, saying that he did not “want well-meaning readers and staff members to think” that he had “ignored their concerns” regarding the controversial Trump ally.