The question over Piker’s prominence also comes as both the Republican and Democratic parties ask fundamental questions about how big their tents should be.

But it’s the out-of-power Democrats who face the higher short-term stakes.

In an interview with POLITICO, Piker downplayed accusations that have been leveled against him, like center-left think tank Third Way, whose leaders wrote in a WSJ op-ed that Piker had a history of anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic comments. Piker said Third Way was “losing their institutional relevance.” He also said he’s merely channeling, not changing, the attitudes of the Democratic base.

“I’m a megaphone, right?” Piker told POLITICO. “There are a lot of Barbs and Deborahs out there in Minneapolis, for example, that have never encountered me, and yet they share that frustration with the failures of establishment liberalism all the same.”

Piker said those type of voters view Democrats as “ineffective, inept.” “It’s not because they tune into The HasanAbi broadcast every day,” he said, referencing his Twitch channel. “They arrive at that conclusion because the Democrats lost to Trump twice. With the same principle that you got to pivot to the mythical moderate center.”

This isn’t Piker’s first rodeo: He livestreamed an interview last year with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders before one of the duo’s “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also sat for an interview with Piker last year.

But Piker’s increasing coziness with prominent Democrats also comes as some in the party argue he poses a problem for them.

“Piker is close to — but not over — the Nick Fuentes line, where going on his show itself is indefensible,” Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett, who’s been sounding the alarm about Democrats’ affiliation with Piker, told POLITICO. Bennett added that Democrats “take on all of his baggage if they don’t overtly reject” him, which he said is “dangerous because it empowers the right and gives them an incredibly powerful tool to hit Democrats with that’s very bad.”

But some Democrats like Khanna argue that the party needs to assemble a broad coalition. “That must include engaging with Israel critics like Hasan Piker as Pod Save hosts have done and many progressive candidates have done,” Khanna told POLITICO. “Of course, I disagree strongly with some of his statements and point that out. But cancelling people or shaming people like Hasan Piker, Shawn Ryan or Theo Vonn is not the answer.”

The debate over Piker’s place within the party is set to play out across the 2028 field, too.

POLITICO surveyed 14 potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, asking whether they would appear on a livestream with Piker if invited. Only three definitively said they would.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) all said they wouldn’t go on Piker’s stream through spokespeople. “Mr. Piker’s terrible comments about Jewish people, 9/11, and other areas aren’t the kinds of conversations Cory participates in and he will not be joining him on his stream,” an aide to Booker told POLITICO.

So who would appear on Piker’s stream? Khanna, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emanuel. (Ocasio-Cortez has already appeared, but a spokesperson did not return a request for comment).

“It’s not on the agenda right now, but the Governor has never shied away from debating anyone, anywhere,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon told POLITICO.

>>1501254
Jews

Said an Emanuel spokesperson: “Rahm is always willing to have difficult conversations with anyone about the future of the country, and to tell people he disagrees with why they’re wrong.”

Aides to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declined to comment. Aides to former Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker did not respond.

Asked about some of his controversial past comments, Piker didn’t retract any of them. Asked if he had ever misspoken: “Misspoken? No. Taken out of context? Absolutely.”

He did point to one particular quote of his about the Hamas attack on Israel, which he noted often comes up when he’s criticized.

“One of the quotes that they love floating around is the Oct. 7 quote where I said, like, rape’s happening, like the conversation around, like, sexual violence taking place on 10/7 doesn’t change the dynamic for me. And I was talking about genocide. I was like, this doesn’t justify genocide at all,” Piker said.

As for the other quotes he catches heat for? “No, I stand by them,” Piker said.
“Who knows how things change?” he said. “I mean, this is a very dynamic environment.”

So who does Piker like for 2028? He’s got a short list. “I said [Georgia Sen. Jon] Ossoff will be my dark horse pick, depending on how he presents himself if he has ambitions for higher office. I do love [UAW President] Shawn Fain personally. I like an outsider pick. I like Ro Khanna. I like AOC. I actually like [Sen.] Chris Van Hollen, quite a bit as well, even.”

And the criticism cuts both ways. “At the end of the day, of course, I have disagreements with every single one of these candidates,” Piker said. “No candidate is perfect.”

An adviser to one potential 2028 candidate, granted anonymity to appraise Piker’s influence, told POLITICO they expect Piker to be a “gatekeeper” in the primary. But Piker isn’t sure how much sway he’ll hold.

I hate Shemuel Seder.
I'm really hasan's uncle

>>1501263

My network is the real progressive, Seder is MSM

>>1501263
>>1501265
weird kneejerk

Champagne socialist
Also he's a terrible person considering the whole shock collar debacle.

>>1501268
>muh shock collar
Chuds tried too hard to force this meme. No one cares when Trump picks people who shoot dogs for his cabinet.

>>1501271
its almost like most of these twitchfags viewers are just right wing retards hate watching him and egging him on

>>1501268
Asmongold lit his mom on fire, but nobody ever talks about that

>>1501259
>>As for the other quotes he catches heat for?
God forbid a news article actually give us the quotes.

>>1501271
Torturing animal is pretty bad, yeah. The left needs actual representation, not more phony grifters that ruin their image.

>>1501288
If you're saying they should appeal to women who murder puppies and mutilate their faces for a pedophile, That doesn't seem like a good use of resources.

>>1501288
A shock collar to train the animal isn't torture though.

>>1501292
Try wearing a shock collar and zapping yourself. Tell me it how it feels.

>>1501293
I'm not a dog who isn't potty trained.

>>1501294
>excuses for animal cruelty intensify

>>1501296
this tactic might work if you didn't spend countless hours here defending ICE murders

>>1501271
>Trump whataboutism

>>1501297
Dogs are innocent. Retards that fight federal agents are not.

>>1501299
>fight federal agents
Didn’t happen.
>Dogs are innocent.
You’re supporting a puppy murderer.

>>1501299
thanks for proving my point shill anon

>>1501254
Hasan is a genuine piece of shit and I hope Mossad punks him.

>>1501266
>>1501266
Yaba daba Armenian genocide doooooo

You can literally criticize any country on Earth but Israel in the US. I can say that the CCP sucks donkey balls, and people will give me the benefit of the doubt to assume that I'm levying an attack at the government, not the people. But not with Israel. They're the only ethnostate which libs seem to be okay with. Conversely, you can go on Bill Mayer and talk about how Arabs are inherently savage animals and still have a media career afterwards, but can't say absolutely anything bad about Israel because then you're talking bad about all Jews.

I get it. Jews had it rough because of the Gospels of Mathew and John, and how medieval nobles liked to make them their money men (medieval Christians couldn't partake in usury, but Jews could). But a history of oppression and one holocaust doesn't give Israel the right to wipe out other groups, collude with religious nuts in my country to seize power and funnel funds to their country for perpetual war, spy on my countrymen (which they'll "leak" to my government, thus bypassing all sorts of inconvenient privacy laws), influence my country towards authoritarianism, and try to kick off a world war that we'll end up fighting.

>>1501304
What makes him a piece of shit besides you pretending to be deeply concerned about his dog?

>>1501300
>You’re supporting a puppy murderer.
Are you talking about the dog that one woman shot? Because it killed her neighbor's farm animals IIRC.

>>1501307
And?

>>1501342
>that one woman
kek I bet that's what Trump calls her, too

>>1501254
anyone associated with hasan becomes a terrorist sympathizing nepo pissbaby who uses his uncle's influence to bury stories.
I like bernie sanders but if he's supported by someone platforming terrorists fck that i'll take the orange devil instead

>>1501271
maybe don't support 911 and platform houthis onto your stream?
Its incredible twitch hasn't been shut down yet for platforming him then again the ADL is a joke and only goes one way.

Fuck this nepo baby and his manchild followers.

>>1501374
So.... You wouldn't support someone with amazing social reform if someone you don't like would support them.

Instead you'd support someone whose policy is to enrich himself as much as possible and insulate himself from the consequences........

Whois ALSO supported by tons of people you don't like........ including similar terrorists.

Cool. That's fucking stupid.

>>1501377
Israel done 911 and the Houthis aren’t terrorists

>>1501377
Have you ever actually watched the 9/11 clip or are you repeating what you heard from someone else?
Cuz in the clip he was saying Saudi Arabia did 9/11 and America is foolish to support them in any capacity.

>>1501346
What's wild is she even got that ugly ass plastic surgery that all the other women around trump were getting to please him and he still pumped and dumped her.

>>1501526
She lied about him signing off for some enormous budget to shoot a commercial or something. Most important rule is you never use Trump as the fall guy, that's what he uses you for.

>>1501300
>"torturing dogs is bad"
>durrr whattabout this person?
Denounce torturing dogs.

>>1501589
You guys don't seem to have a problem with puppy murderers holding office.

>>1501589
This is hilarious coming from the same people who put the lady who shot a dog in charge of ICE.

>>1501254
the problem is Piker is a genuine fucking retard who doesn't follow any of his own tenants of his political beliefs. If I just wanted to listen to a closet rightoid who is only considered left-wing because he hates jews, I can visit /pol/ anytime and get almost 1:1 the same midwit takes he has.

>>1501603
>>1501593
>whataboutism, but no denouncement
interesting!

>>1501377
>maybe don't support 911
I don't like the saudis either, but I don't see what this has to do with hasan or politicians in general since both sides left and right support them.

>>1501607
Hasan is too handsome for them to denounce. Buncha fags

>>1501610
Hasan stated that 9/11 deserved to happen to America in one of his streams.

>>1501607
Nobody believes you people care about animals.

>>1501613
It’s generally accepted that US foreign policy brought about the conditions for 9/11. It’s called blowback and isn’t controversial

>>1501618
Saying that three thousand American citizens deserved to die in a horrific terrorist attack is absolutely controversial.

>>1501652
Controversial for whom? Not for most Americans it wasn't.

>>1501330
He directly platformed Houthi slaver pirates and acted like they were cute One Piece straw-hat types.

>>1501672
well he's still not a pedophile

>>1501271
Your shits all retarded and you talk like a fag.

>>1501292
What a dumb statement. Let’s attach a human sized collar around your neck, then we’ll talk.

>>1501297
So defending child rapists, repeat serial criminals, murderers and drug dealers is alright in your book.

>>1501677
no, anon, i'm not a republican

>>1501662
Americans, aka shitskins and darkies or real Americans. I’ll tell you that if you said this to the avg Americans face you would be spitting chiclets.

>>1501678
You do though. You don’t support deporting shitskins who have no right to be here so itsofactso you are a supporter of all things evil.

>>1501679
god bless those real americans like jon stewart, right anon

>>1501675
Thanks for seething

>>1501557
Funny it was that and not turning the public against ICE after trying to smear the two Americans they murdered.

>>1501685
Trump doesn't care about the public anymore.

>>1501652
It’s not the same thing retard

On the one hand, Hasan is a good entry point for leftist politics with a very large reach, so him shutting the fuck up might harm Dems.

On the other hand, he regularly engages in anti-electoralism and has some truly dogshit takes stemming largely from his American diabolism.

Hard to say whether him going away would broadly help or hurt the left. That said investing social capital into making him go away is 100% a horrid strategy for the left.

Think the commies will take over the democrat party? All ready half of them call themselves "democratic socialists" ( code for commie). Keep an eye during the democrat primaries before the midterms and see how many communists run. The democrats are in a schism, that's why the globalists want commies like piker out.......

>>1501713
Socialism and communism are different things you fucking dumbass.

>>1501318
Yes I concur. But also FUCK ALL JEWS!

>>1501711
His takes on Russia are going to age very poorly and I wish he would stop pretending they’re a force of anti-imperialism

>>1501713
In America the democratic socialists are usually actually social democrats. Just retarded burger things…

>>1501726
And yet all the commie shit is used to enrich billionaires.
No wonder why most billionaires support tardocrats.

>>1501417
trump's reforms is to cut down medical costs and force big pharma to move to the US so that the prices are lower, are you going to support him then? oh right you're a fucking loser who thinks politicians keep their worst when and ONLY when they're on your side
cool please just kill yourself
>>1501419
officially designated terrorist organization, there's open video of them taking crew hostage at gunpoint.
>>1501422
the clip i saw had him saying america deserved it. but nice job playing coverup for your terrorist shill streamer. next you'll be making excuses for him forcing himself on female prostitutes in an establishment raided for human trafficking

>>1501739
>trump's reforms is to cut down medical costs and force big pharma to move to the US so that the prices are lower, are you going to support him then?
which they've completely and utterly failed to do.

>>1501722
Hasan is kind of campist/tankie-adjacent. His takes on China are pretty wild too.

>>1501740
he literally put the pfizer in front of the press at gunpoint and forced him to explain how they're moving operations to the US under threats of tariff and this is going to benefit the american people.
the guy looked like the camera had a gun pointed at his head.
Oh yes because the amazing democrat reforms definitely work out well, all the while democrat states have been caught over and over committing billions in federal fraud. to the point the minnesota cunt said he's not even going to run for reelection

>>1501742(me)
>>1501740
>pfizer executive

>>1501742
you're even sadder than shills, you actually fell for the lies

>>1501744
I actually watch press conferences and real news, you read reddit headlines we are not the same. please kindly just kys

>>1501742
Ok and those lowered prices are... where exactly?

>>1501739
commandeering a ship isn’t terrorism

ESL shills literally can't talk about anything Trump is doing without getting BTFO so they're trying to pretend that some rando twitch loser is relevant, lmao

>>1501745
>I actually watch press conferences and real news
No you don't, you watch cherrypicked bits of the news conferences on the accounts of right wing grifters on twitter.
>muh reddit
This is such a weird cope coming from election tourists who came here in the great /r/the_Donald migration.

>>1501739
>trump's reforms is to cut down medical costs
My monthly cost for health insurance went from $120 a month to almost $400 after the BBB started to take effect.

>>1501752
Fake news. Mine went from 230 to 115

>>1501703
That's why 9/11 was bad, sharty.

>>1501753
I haven't met a single person that has said there's costs less.
You're just lying at this point and everyone knows you are.

>>1501751
nice self-projection from uneducated stupid hasan piker fans.
>muh they cherry picked news conferences
then again what do i expect from the crowd that support leftists fraudsters because muh orange man bad
I actually watch news conference you don't even know where to find it because you get ur news off reddit r/news headlines

>>1501763
god you're esl

>>1501765
>esl
grammar nazis are pathetic uneducated losers who can't debate. thanks for proving that. I hope you get alex prattied

>>1501763
Who indoctrinated you?

>>1501672
He platformed a teenager from Yemen that wasn't even an actual Houthi.

>>1501770
Are you outraged?

>>1501741
>Hasan is kind of campist/tankie-adjacent
He's not a campist. He's an American diabolist. There's a lot of overlap between the two viewpoints, but they aren't really the same thing.

Tankies have horrible principles. American diabolists have 1 good principle, but they just apply it even when objective evidence would tell a reasonable person they shouldn't.

I hate leftists so fucking much. They torpedoed Democrats chances for winning the 2024 election with their stupid ass palestine bullshit, and is palestine any better off? No, no its fucking not, and now Trump is back and fucking up everything. Oh and now they say that democrats should engage with them for '26 and '28. I have a better idea, how about you go fuck yourselves, you backstabbing motherfuckers. We've had enough of your bullshit. It's time to excise the cancer that is leftism from the Democratic party.

>>1502014
nobody will ever believe you're american

>>1502036
I don't care

>>1501258
Every. Single. Time.

Reading through these posts reminded me who hasan piker is. A literally who that shocks his dog on the internet and says shit about Israel the jews don't like because it's true.

Just remember:
Hasan trains his dog to sit still for hours with a shock collar.
Israel trains dogs to rape palestinian prisoners.

They never will though.

>>1502108
>I don't know who this guy is, but he's absolutely right!
Nobody falls for that, tourist

https://newrepublic.com/article/208412/hasan-piker-interview-third-way-el-sayed-centrist-critics
So everyone attacking Hasan is a nazi, zonist, or a centrists who's the puppet of the first two groups.
Anyone who third way hates on the left means they're good for america

>>1502623
>nazi, zonist, or a centrists
So, is being a communist the only acceptable option for modern democrats?

>>1501254
>McMorrow saying Piker “says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks and views and followers, which is not entirely different from somebody like Nick Fuentes,” comparing him to the antisemite nationalist influencer.
This is 100% true and impossible to deny.

>>1501273
lmao everyone talks about it all the time.

>>1502927
Communism is a better alternative than what you peddle

>>1502929
Did Piker get a rival killed like Fuentes did with wash out Kirk?