Senate Nominee El-Sayed Resists Piker's Rhetoric, Amidst Political Race
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El-Sayed further distanced himself from Piker Monday after Piker argued on his Twitch show that rhetoric linking American Jews closely to Israel could ultimately provoke attacks against American Jews — comments critics condemned as antisemitic victim-blaming.
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The AtlanticWhen Democrats dismiss the controversy over Piker and the movement he stands for, they are treating the growing influence of left-wing anti-Semitism as unworthy of concern—or, worse still, a fait accompli. The Democrats imploring El-Sayed to renounce Piker want more than a generalized promise to safeguard Jewish safety, or a statement that “nobody” speaks for the candidate. They are seeking some assurance from El-Sayed that he will speak out in opposition to attacks against Jews by his own supporters.
New York PostThe Post reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment. The Usha flap comes as El-Sayed is trying to insulate himself against critics from within his own party demanding he end his association with Hasan Piker, who is accused of antisemitism and said “America deserved 9/11.” He appeared with Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a prominent Jewish House member, and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich) in Ann Arbor Thursday.
BreitbartEl-Sayed responded to a question on Piker by saying that “this campaign is not about a streamer in California. This campaign is about affordability in Michigan. This campaign is about the ability to have healthcare.”
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Democrats have good reason to say this. El-Sayed is running a close race to hold a seat that Democrats probably need to retain to win control of the Senate in the midterm elections.
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New York PostEl-Sayed faces former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in an open-seat contest critical to Democrats' chances of retaking the Senate. AFP via Getty Images
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Sewell isn't a fan of the company El-Sayed keeps, either. He slammed El-Sayed for campaigning with socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11." Piker has also praised Mao Zedong and Communist China, and said capitalists should be murdered in the streets and spewed a litany of antisemitic comments.
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The AtlanticBut the truth is that Piker, and the uncomfortable questions raised by his alliance with El-Sayed, is one of the important questions at stake in the election. If Piker were just an internet pundit, his rant—the latest entry in a long list of outrageous comments he has made—would be of little consequence to the Democratic Party. Piker has said that “America deserved 9/11,” praised Mao Zedong as “one of the great leaders of this world,” and mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union as “one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.” His ideology is profoundly authoritarian. But several left-wing Democrats, especially El-Sayed, have campaigned with Piker and elevated him into one of their most prominent surrogates.
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On Friday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Moment,” Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed responded to a question on why he won’t fully disassociate with Hasan Piker by declaring that “this campaign is not about a streamer in California.”
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The AtlanticMost Democrats followed El-Sayed’s line that Piker was irrelevant. “This election is about what’s going to happen when we elect Abdul to the United States Senate. I am done, so don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker. It’s not what November is about,” Representative Debbie Dingell said at a rally for El-Sayed.
4 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 New York Post Radical Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s racially charged swipe at Second Lady Usha Vance is badly backfiring, threatening to alienate Michigan’s 130,000 Indian-Americans and crucial female voters, insiders told The Post.
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02 Fox News DETROIT — A Black Christian pastor who went viral online for clashing with the city council in the nearby majority-Arab city of Dearborn issued a stark warning about Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
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03 The Atlantic So El-Sayed’s alliance with Piker has become a political and moral crisis.
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04 Breitbart Tur cut in to say, “The streamer in California does campaign with a lot of Democrats. So, he’s not just a streamer.”
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