{"id":2652669,"date":"2026-08-31T22:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/el-sayed-defends-piker-after-distancing-himself-from-streamer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T22:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:57:24","slug":"el-sayed-defends-piker-after-distancing-himself-from-streamer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/el-sayed-defends-piker-after-distancing-himself-from-streamer\/","title":{"rendered":"El Sayed defends Piker after distancing himself from streamer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fel-sayed-defends-piker-after-distancing-himself-from-streamer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2652669&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed has defended Twitch streamer Hasan piker amid controversy over allegations of antisemitism. Despite distancing himself from Piker recently, el Sayed previously campaigned with him and expressed strong support, stating he agrees with Piker on several issues like healthcare and opposing wars. El Sayed criticized efforts to &#8220;cancel&#8221; Piker, comparing the backlash to discredited accusations against figures like David Duke. <\/p>\n<p>The controversy centers around Piker\u2019s comments downplaying Hamas\u2019s violence and support for the group, viewed by many as antisemitic. He has also made provocative statements in the past, including a 2019 remark that he later retracted, saying it was taken out of context. Piker\u2019s stance on Middle East conflicts and his remarks about the 9\/11 attacks have attracted bipartisan criticism, with some Democrats distancing themselves from him.<\/p>\n<p>El Sayed emphasizes that Piker\u2019s statements don\u2019tRepresentation a rise in support, but highlights the importance of understanding differing opinions and resisting &#8220;cancel culture.&#8221; The debate illustrates the complex intersection of free speech, political alliances, and the scrutiny of public figures within American politics.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/michigan\/\">Michigan<\/a> Senate Democratic nominee <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/abdul-el-sayed\/\">Abdul el Sayed<\/a> on Monday again defended Hasan Piker after publicly distancing himself from the Twitch streamer in the wake of concerns that he is antisemitic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Sayed campaigned with Hasan Piker multiple times before clinching his party\u2019s nomination in the state\u2019s Aug. 4 primary. As he took <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4696932\/hasan-piker-hamas-moderate\/\">increasing flak<\/a> from more centrist Democrats for his alliance with Piker ahead of the general election, el Sayed on Aug. 26 said he had \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4702216\/el-sayed-no-plans-campaign-hasan-piker\/\">no plans<\/a>\u201d to appear with the left-wing political commentator.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4707345\/el-sayed-defends-hasan-piker-senate-campaign\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>El Sayed rips effort to \u2018cancel\u2019 Piker after streamer exits Michigan campaign trail<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4707063\/mike-johnson-backs-max-miller-reelection-bid-despite-allegations\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Mike Johnson backs Max Miller\u2019s reelection bid despite abuse allegations<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4706939\/susan-collins-skip-republican-midterm-convention\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Susan Collins to skip Republican midterm convention<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, el Sayed appeared to shift during <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yRB0_JP9T3I\">an appearance<\/a> on <em>The Breakfast Club<\/em>, rising to Piker\u2019s defense as controversy builds over whether the Democratic Party should align itself with the socialist. Besides el Sayed, New York City Mayor <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/2026\/03\/31\/ny\/before-he-hit-a-passover-seder-zohran-mamdani-shared-an-eid-dinner-with-hasan-piker\">Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, along with New York House candidates Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, are among socialists who have warmed to Piker. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re trying to equate him and David Duke and him and Nick Fuentes,\u201d el Sayed said, referring to the neo-Nazi leader and right-wing political activist, respectively. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re working so hard to character assassinate him suggests that there is a disjunct there between what he\u2019s actually saying and what people hear him saying who actually pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senate candidate suggested concerns about Piker amounted to \u201ccancel culture,\u201d and emphasized that he agrees with the political commentator on several issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are a lot of things he says that I deeply agree with. People deserve healthcare. We shouldn\u2019t be fighting dumb wars. The war in Iran is ridiculous. Donald Trump is a fascist. All true,\u201d el Sayed said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Piker has attracted bipartisan scrutiny for his views on Jews and Israel. He is widely condemned by Republicans, while many prominent Democrats have warned against endorsing his presence in the party. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin are among Democrats who have distanced themselves from Piker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their positioning comes amid concerns that Piker is an openly antisemitic figure, due to his <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LSQyaJ-3Vms\">repeated<\/a> denials or downplaying of sweeping sexual violence against Jews in Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jvAN_N2OQJQ\">saying<\/a> he \u201cwould vote for Hamas over Israel every single time\u201d and calling Hamas \u201ca thousand times better\u201d than Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this month, Piker reiterated his support for Hamas as a critical part of the Palestinian \u201cresistance\u201d in Gaza. During <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5D19Fr1qPIg\">an interview<\/a> on Channel 4 News UK\u2019s <em>TrumpWorld<\/em>, Piker said he didn\u2019t \u201clove\u201d the terrorist group and didn\u2019t necessarily support it governing Gaza, arguing he is \u201csimply looking at this in the most pragmatic and in the most realistic ways possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think Hamas\u2019s current position, as far as I understand it, is far more moderate than its position was at its inception,\u201d Piker said. \u201cThey\u2019ve recognized that it\u2019s virtually impossible to advance this vengeance quest against Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Piker has also drawn scrutiny for saying in 2019 that the United States \u201cdeserved\u201d the 9\/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. He later <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lKQGvVsRpaE&#038;t=43s\">walked back<\/a> the statement, saying it was taken out of context.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/4676513\/hasan-piker-democrats-joe-rogan-political-liability\/\"><strong>HASAN PIKER BECOMES BOTH A DEMOCRATIC KINGMAKER \u2014 AND POLITICAL LIABILITY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOf course it was a dumb statement, and of course I think Hasan himself would say that was a dumb statement,\u201d el Sayed said of that statement earlier this month. \u201cBut you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves \u2014 to say, \u2018Oh well, what does that mean about what you think?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do, rather than this idea that we\u2019re so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>El Sayed defends Piker amid antisemitism concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3142,"featured_media":2652670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215716145202.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[50410,3998,81734,77253,17330],"class_list":["post-2652669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-controversy-2","tag-defense","tag-el-sayed","tag-piker","tag-streamer"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215716145202.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2652673,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652669\/revisions\/2652673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2652670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}