Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker is scheduled to speak at a University of Texas campus event on Wednesday. Despite the event’s backing from the student Democratic Party group on campus, most Texas Democrats running for office in the historically conservative state have been silent when it comes to speaking out against the far-left influencer. 

Texas is one of the most prized political battlegrounds in the fight for control of Congress, hosting a hotly contested governor’s race, a neck-and-neck Senate race and four House races rated by the Cook Political Report as highly competitive. All of the close races are taking place in conservative-leaning constituencies, where candidates are typically incentivized to distance themselves from extremists or ideologues. 

So far, among Texas Democrats, only Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) has spoken out against Piker, saying that leaders shouldn’t remain silent “when someone has a history of hateful comments about Jewish Americans, 9/11, and Hamas terrorism.” Cuellar, a leading moderate Democrat, is running for reelection in a redrawn district that President Donald Trump carried by a double-digit margin. 

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin condemned Piker in an interview with Fox News this month: “Let me just say that I think it’s absolutely disgusting and deplorable the things that Hasan Piker has said, right? But he does not represent the Democratic Party, and he certainly doesn’t represent the viewpoints of almost every one of our candidates and our elected officials.” But aside from Cuellar, none of the other Texas Democrats on the ballot have volunteered the same criticism. 

While the DNC generally supports all Democratic entities, the University of Texas’ party chapter is an independent organization and the DNC has no oversight or authority over their events.

Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have spoken out against the event, but it hasn’t become a significant issue on the campaign trail. University leaders have also remained silent, declining interview requests from Jewish Insider and Axios to talk about the upcoming event. 

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about Piker.

Piker, who has an extensive history of anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric, recently drew more scrutiny for telling Axios that he believes the United States conducts more terrorism in the world than al-Qaida. Piker, as part of a college tour this month, spoke last week about the “end of Zionism” at Cornell University to a packed auditorium. But the Cornell event, like many other Piker events on campus, was hosted by a number of far-left, anti-Israel groups. The UT event, by contrast, is sponsored by College Democrats.

Jews make up less than 1% of the Texas electorate, but could end up being a key swing bloc in the unusually close governor’s race between Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa and the battleground Senate race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. 

The University of Texas’ College Democrats chapter invited antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker to speak on campus at the end of the month, sparking outrage from Jewish leaders and students on campus and generating a potential political firestorm in a red state hosting consequential elections in November’s midterms. 

The event, hosted by the University Democrats, a decades-old student Democratic party political organization, is scheduled to be held on Sept. 30, amid the final stretch of Texas’ highly competitive Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico and a competitive gubernatorial contest between GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

“Hasan Piker said America deserved 9/11 and praised the brutal terrorist organization Hamas. University Democrats at UT Austin are choosing to amplify that disgusting rhetoric. Terrorist sympathizers have no place in Texas,” an Abbott spokesperson told Jewish Insider. 

Asked about Piker’s invitation, Hinojosa’s campaign spokesperson did not address the issue. “Gina will be in East Texas that day talking about securing the American Dream by saving our schools and putting money in your pocket,” Hinojosa spokesperson Tommy Kubitschek said. 

Madison Cercy, a Paxton campaign spokesperson, told JI, “James Talarico and Hasan Piker are both leaders of the same Democratic Socialist Movement that wants to raise taxes, trans your children, and abolish prisons. They welcome extreme radicals into their base and don’t bat an eye when they start chanting ‘death to America.’” 

Talarico’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment from JI about the invitation for Piker to speak on campus at the state’s flagship public university. 

Piker, who has an extensive history of antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric, including justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, calling Orthodox Jews “inbred,” and asserting in 2019 that America deserved 9/11 — a remark he later said he should have phrased better while standing by the underlying critique — has praised Talarico. 

The University of Texas, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and the Texas Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comments from JI. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, also declined to comment.  

Jewish students, faculty and parents at the University of Texas told JI that the upcoming event marks a negative shift for a campus that they said had previously been one of the most welcoming in the country for Jewish students since Oct. 7. Some are pushing the public university to cancel the event, though they noted this is unlikely to happen because of free speech protections.

“My concern is not that Hasan Piker holds views I disagree with, it is that his public rhetoric has repeatedly crossed a line that Jewish students should not be expected to ignore simply because it is framed as political commentary,” Ella Trubek, a senior at UT majoring in psychology, told JI. 

“When someone with an enormous platform has spoken about American Jews eventually facing ‘action,’ referred to Orthodox Jews as ‘inbred’ and repeatedly used rhetoric that many Jewish students experience as dehumanizing, inviting him onto our campus has a real impact on how safe and supported our community feels. Jewish students at UT are not asking to be protected from uncomfortable conversations; we are asking the university to recognize the difference between discomfort and feeling genuinely targeted. I love UT, and I believe our concerns deserve to be taken seriously.”

Trubek, who is president of the campus AEPhi chapter, wrote a letter to University of Texas President Jim Davis to reconsider holding the Piker event on campus. Davis has not yet responded to the request, according to Trubek. 

Lisa Strauss, the parent of a UT student, described the Austin campus as handling the 2024 anti-Israel encampment movement that roiled campuses nationwide “extremely well,” noting it was one of the first universities in the country to ban encampments and non-students from entering campus to protest.  

“That was a great thing for all students, not just Jewish students,” she told JI. “Everything has been pretty quiet on our campus since then. When this came out a week ago, that College Democrats were bringing him, the first response was that surely UT can shut this down.” 

Strauss pointed to the University of Washington, where a student group recently planned to host Piker. The university canceled the event, citing a flawed planning process. The College Democrats of America also hosted Piker as a surprise speaker at its national convention last month, which drew condemnation from the group’s own Jewish Caucus over Piker’s history of antisemitic comments.

“When we dug further into what we should do as a community, everyone mobilized immediately, emailing and calling the president of the university, the governor’s office, our senators and the response we kept getting was they’re not sure they can do anything about it because of free speech and this is not being brought by the university. While it is going to be held on campus, it’s being brought by a student group,” said Strauss. “They can’t prevent a student group from bringing a speaker.” 

“That’s one of the more upsetting things, that a mainstream organization is bringing this versus Students for Justice in Palestine or one of those,” she continued. 

Rabbi Stephanie Max, executive director of University of Texas Hillel, said in a statement that the irony of the event being hosted during Sukkot, a holiday that encourages welcoming guests, “is disturbing.” 

“We value our campus — with its obligations and limitations around free speech —  as a place for disagreement, pluralism and debate … Mr. Piker’s views however go against our values as Americans and Jews, and his hateful, antisemitic rhetoric is repulsive.”  

Max said Hillel leaders are in ongoing contact with university officials regarding the event. 

Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) issued a strong rejection of antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s comments last week that Jewish supporters of Israel are inciting antisemitic violence against themselves, though he did not name Piker personally.

“The malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic,” Jeffries wrote on X on Monday. “There is zero justification for threats against the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate. We will fight the cancer of antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now.”

The comments mark the most prominent denunciation of Piker from a Democratic leader thus far, following criticisms of the streamer from other Democratic lawmakers and moves by some who have affiliated or campaigned with Piker to distance themselves from his comments.

Jeffries’ statement was notably more direct and tougher than the response of Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee who campaigned with Piker in the closing week of the primary.  El-Sayed earlier on Monday put out a statement distancing himself from the streamer without addressing the substance of Piker’s antisemitic remarks. 

Francesca Hong, a Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidate for governor of Wisconsin, appeared on Tuesday on the Twitch stream of Mike Beyer, known by his online handle “Mike From PA,” a fringe far-left influencer who has espoused open antisemitism.

Beyer was suspended from Twitch last year for comments in which he said that “Jewish is not an ethnicity” and Jewish identity is “a constructed ethnicity, this demonic ethnicity, wholly invented.” He subsequently apologized, claiming he had intended to refer to Zionists, rather than Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League praised Twitch for the suspension. “Streamers with such reach and influence should use their platforms responsibly and not engage in inflammatory, dehumanizing and antisemitic rhetoric,” the group said in 2025.

Despite the walkback, Beyer has continued to spread other antisemitic conspiracy theories, including boosting a claim that “Zionists were obsessed with destroying the Soviet Union” so that they could enslave children from the Soviet bloc and use them for child trafficking and prostitution.

Amid scrutiny of his interview with Hong, Beyer on Tuesday blamed an organized conspiracy trying to slander “grassroots politicians like they are getting direct orders from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Later on Tuesday, Hong also appeared on antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s Twitch show.

Asked about the two appearances, Allison Geyer, a spokesperson for Hong’s campaign said, “Rep. Hong has been clear throughout this campaign that antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, transphobia, and all forms of dehumanization have no place in Wisconsin politics or in the movement we are building.” Geyer also said that Hong condemns the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks as well as the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza, despite the monthslong ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Geyer said Hong was not aware of Beyer’s comments prior to the appearance, but noted that he “issued a very lengthy apology” and said he was “talking about Zionist political ideology and held himself accountable for his statement.”

“Appearing on a podcast or livestream is not an endorsement of every statement a host has ever made. Fran is willing to go anywhere and talk to anyone about her vision for a better, more compassionate world. Sometimes that means talking to people who have said pretty nasty things,” Geyer continued. “Speaking with them isn’t an endorsement of those perspectives; it’s a way to reach people who have been isolated from conversations about community, compassion, and the systems of power and control that contribute to the struggles we share.”

Geyer said that non-traditional platforms “are going to shape this election” and that they will be dominated by “the right, … conspiracy theorists … or people who do not share our values” if Democrats don’t appear.

“Trying to turn every interview into a referendum on everything a host has ever said is a distraction from the material issues that will shape people’s lives,” Geyer said. “Fran sees every conversation as an opportunity to bring more people into the tent, especially voters who have been turned off by establishment politicians and status-quo politics, and to build a positive future for Wisconsin together.”

One of Hong’s opponents, Joel Brennan, the former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, condemned Beyer and Piker.

“Joel wouldn’t join that livestream and disagrees with much of what he’s said. This race isn’t about clicks or views, it’s about Wisconsin,” a Brennan spokesperson said. “Joel is laser-focused on talking directly with Wisconsinites about what’s keeping them up at night: the cost of living, including health care, child care, and housing, and fixing our school funding problem.”

State Sen. Kelda Roys accused Hong of associating with controversial figures to benefit her campaign financially, emphasizing that Roys raises most of her own money from grassroots supporters.

“How candidates raise money reflects the type of leader they are and the type of governor they would be. Kelda’s campaign is built on support from progressive grassroots donors in Wisconsin, over 90% of her contributions come from everyday Wisconsinites whose trust she has earned through conversations and events around the state,” Jalen Knuteson, a spokesperson for Roy, said. “Hong made a lucrative choice to align herself with an influencer who has cashed in on divisive, antisemitic, and offensive comments,”

David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, also criticized Hong.

“Anyone seeking public office should exercise good judgment about the platforms they choose to elevate, and should have zero tolerance for antisemitism, political violence, or any form of hate. David Crowley believes leadership is about bringing people together, not courting controversy or seeking attention through divisive platforms,” a Crowley campaign spokesperson said. “The Crowley campaign has been clear that antisemitism is unacceptable and has no place in Wisconsin. Leaders have a responsibility to exercise sound judgment and make clear where they stand. David is focused on earning the trust of every Wisconsinite by leading with decency, respect, and a commitment to bringing people together rather than dividing them.”

“Joel wouldn’t join that livestream and disagrees with much of what he’s said. This race isn’t about clicks or views, it’s about Wisconsin,” a Brennan spokesperson said. “Joel is laser-focused on talking directly with Wisconsinites about what’s keeping them up at night: the cost of living, including health care, child care, and housing, and fixing our school funding problem.”

Other candidates in the gubernatorial race — including 2022 Democratic Senate nominee Mandela Barnes and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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. 

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.