5 minPolitics
Hasan Piker Says He Would Campaign for AOC in 2028 as El-Sayed Distances Himself
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said he would 'absolutely' campaign for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if she runs for president in 2028, while Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed publicly distanced himself from Piker over controversial remarks.
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said he would «absolutely» campaign for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., if she runs for president in 2028, as some Democratic politicians move to distance themselves from him over his past remarks.
Piker made the comments during an episode of «The Axios Show» taped in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Asked directly whether he would campaign for Ocasio-Cortez in 2028, he replied, «Oh, absolutely, yes.» He also said he has been in touch with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., along with «politicians that you would not expect, that are not immediately seen as allies to Democratic socialists.»
The streamer's remarks come as Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, has publicly distanced himself from Piker. When asked whether Piker had been invited to campaign for El-Sayed, Piker said he had not been asked to stay away from — or come to — Michigan. «If my services are needed, I'll go wherever,» he said. He added that if El-Sayed were to call on him to campaign this close to the upcoming midterms, «there'd be real deep problems.»
Piker described his role in narrow terms. «My job isn't to get 65-plus-year-olds out to vote for the Democratic candidate,» he said. «My job is to get under 45-year-old, college-educated, and non-college-educated men to come out and participate.»
During the interview, Piker's comments drew a public rebuke from El-Sayed's campaign after interviewer Alex Thompson recalled Piker's previous statement that «America is the top dog in terrorism.» Thompson asked whether Piker believed America was worse than al Qaeda. «Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes,» Piker replied. «We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.» He continued, «I think that that is not only terror that we are waging on regular civilians, and nations in the periphery, but it's also having consequences on ourselves. It's having dramatic consequences on the home front.»
Piker cited what he described as a strike on a school in Minab, Iran, earlier this year. A United Nations fact-finding mission said it found «reasonable grounds to believe» the U.S. carried out the strike and that the attack amounted to the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack. «There's no distinction between blowing up a school, triple-tapping it with Tomahawk missiles. If you're killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror,» Piker said. He conceded that not all Americans are terrorists but emphasized the need for an «environment of accountability.»
El-Sayed's campaign condemned the views in a statement. «I do not agree with this statement [on al-Qaeda], nor do I give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer,» the campaign said. «I am more concerned with the dangerous policies of Donald Trump and Mike Rogers that are raising the prices of gas, groceries and healthcare for Michiganders.»
Kaivan Shroff, a media commentator and former digital organizer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, said Piker's approach creates tension for candidates. «The central tension with Hasan is that he wants his electoral influence taken seriously, but he also wants to operate like a streamer with no responsibility for what his comments create for the candidates he supports,» Shroff said. «You can't claim credit for helping politicians win and then treat the consequences of your own rhetoric as their problem.»
Shroff said Piker's comments about Ocasio-Cortez are «a perfect example,» adding that «saying publicly that you're talking to her and her team turns that relationship into a political story whether they wanted one or not. If the goal is to help a candidate, sometimes the most useful thing you can do is not make yourself the story.»
He also pointed to conflicting priorities between Piker and El-Sayed. «El-Sayed has every reason to make clear that Hasan does not speak for his campaign, and Hasan criticizing him for creating that distance exposes the conflicting incentives here,» Shroff said. «A candidate has to answer to voters…a streamer has to keep an audience engaged. If Hasan really wants to help the candidates he supports, an easier solution would be to stop handing them inflammatory comments they then have to explain and go away for a while.»
