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Chapter 1: What factors contributed to Hasan Piker's rise in popularity?
After the 2024 election, leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has blown up in popularity, becoming a go-to voice for the Democratic Party on questions about the new internet, how to reach young men, and even the political costs of the Biden White House's policy on Gaza. But Piker's glow-up has angered a section of Democrats who are growing louder in voice.
And they argue that Piker traffics in anti-Semitism, encourages violence, and engages in open misogyny. Now, Piker is controversial, no doubt. But is he toxic? And how much of this blowback is tied to Piker the person versus the leftist politics he stands for? This week, we'll talk to a centrist Democratic think tank that's been leading the anti-Hassan Piker charge.
And then we'll talk to the streamer himself.
Chapter 2: Why are establishment Democrats pushing back against Hasan Piker?
Let's dig in. So in March, a Democratic group called Third Way published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal's opinion section saying Democrats are too cozy with Hassan Piker. Now, Third Way isn't just any group. It's probably the premier centrist think tank in Washington, and it holds a lot of sway with the party's moderate elected officials.
So I wanted to talk to Third Way, not just about their argument in this article, but about their motivations and their goals. So I connected with John Cohen. He's the president of Third Way and the co-author of the piece in the journal.
Chapter 3: What accusations are being made against Hasan Piker?
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Chapter 4: What is the role of the Third Way think tank in the controversy?
So to begin quickly, let's hear your case. You know, Third Way has argued that Democrats are too cozy with Hasan Piker.
Why? Look, bottom line is it's a free country and I believe in free speech. So Hasan Piker should be free to have his own show, to stream, to say and do whatever he wants. That's not the question. The question is. Should Democrats be supporting him? Should Democrats campaign with him? Should Democrats seek his endorsement?
Chapter 5: What are the motivations behind Third Way's critique of Piker?
Should Democrats cozy up to him? And the answer is definitively no. Not just because the things he says are profoundly offensive, and I will run through those in a moment, but because he is such an extremist that it will only do damage to Democrats and the Democratic brand and hurt their chances of beating right-wing populism and expanding the map across the country.
Hassan Piker, by his own words, is anti-American, he is bigoted, he's anti-Semitic, and he is deeply misogynistic.
What was the impetus to publish this piece in March? You know, why this year? Trump is president, Democrats have very little power in Washington. What made you all publish this now?
We published this for a specific reason and a broad reason. The broad reason is that if Democrats are going to not just be Trump and Trumpism, but MAGA long run, we need to be able to build majorities in lots of red and purple places. And right now, the Democratic Party is perceived as more extreme than mainstream in many places.
And a majority of Democratic voters want the party to move towards the center. So if the party aligns with folks who are this extreme and cozies up to them, it's going to make it much harder, not easier for Democrats to not just flip the house and get the White House back, but beat Vance and MAGA and Rubio and the rest of them long run. The specific impetus was that the pod save folks, right?
right, very prominent Democrats, had featured Hasan Piker at a conference where they are officially elevating him and aligning him with Democrats.
Okay, let's jump into the article. You know, the article opens up by likening Hasan to far-right anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. Part of the piece reads, quote, "'Left-wing anti-Semites are savvier than the Nazi endorsers on the right who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia and sat for dinner with the president.'"
This was the first sentence that kind of jumped out to me in the piece because it does seem like Saviour's doing some work here. There are material differences between Piker and Fuentes, at least some. Piker has voted for Democrats, Harris in 2024, Biden in 2020. He has openly opposed Trump, while Fuentes has openly praised Hitler, dined with Trump, kind of as the piece referenced.
Does that make them categorically different or just packaged differently? How is that not a material difference, just Saviour as the piece said?
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Chapter 6: How does Hasan Piker respond to allegations of anti-Semitism?
I just want to re-level set. I'm not here for the Hasan Piker is a good person or not question. I'm here for the claims that the article is making. And I guess I wanted to just ask my question again. Like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens are Trump supporters who have at times said nice things about Hitler. Hasan Piker has not done that, has voted for Democrats, has advocated against Trump.
And I'm saying, does that make him savvier or does that make him different?
Got it. So Hasan Piker says, if you're someone who says, I want there, if I'm a liberal Zionist, it's like saying you're a liberal Nazi. That is anti-Semitic to its core to say that someone who believes in the existence of Israel is the same as a Nazi. I can't really see the difference between that and Nick Fuentes. On his voting for Democrats, this is what he said about Kamala Harris.
He said, Democrats, if they were in charge now, would be doing 100% the exact same thing. Same thing he means as Trump. One-to-one, make no fucking mistake. Anyone who tries to tell you Kamala Harris would be different is a fucking delusional moron. So no, he's not for Democrats. He's for China and Russia. He has said that America deserved 9-11.
America is, quote, truly the fourth Reich with Newt. So I just, it's not an argument with you. It's that I reject the whole premise. This guy is like Nick Fuentes. And we shouldn't be close to him.
In the article, it also says, Now, I think certainly unequivocally, anti-Semitism is on the rise that represents a violent threat to many Americans. I think we can both acknowledge that. But the CNMP's link there connecting Piker to the violence doesn't even mention his name. So I kind of was wondering where that connection came from.
Do we have evidence that Piker's rhetoric has led to violence directly?
There is no question that bigoted extremist rhetoric, including anti-Semitic rhetoric on the right and the left absolutely encourages violence. There's a ton, ton written and thought about this. That's incredibly clear. And also, so we're clear, Piker is someone who actively encourages violence. So let me give you a quote from Hassan Piker. This is about people who own property. Kill them.
Kill those motherfuckers and murder those motherfuckers in the street. Let the streets, let the streets soak in their fucking red capitalist blood, dude.
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Chapter 7: What is Hasan Piker's perspective on political responsibility?
The moderate democratic base is heavily working class people of color. It doesn't really exist without that kind of diverse base. I wondered about where this priority comes from. If Third Way's point is that Democrats are struggling in places to win over more moderate voters, how do you know that the moderates in question, kind of at the base of the party, share this priority?
Do they care about Hassan Piker?
Let's take African-American voters who want to win. We just held a major conference in South Carolina. Those folks want to win. They don't want a party that is deeply connected to and associated with hateful, bigoted extremists like Hassan Piker. That is their priority.
is winning, beating back Trumpism and expanding the map, they know in their bones that to do that, you don't become a mirror image of the other party, the right wing, that is extremist and bigoted. We don't need two extremist parties in this country.
If Democrats are going to beat MAGA and expand the map in the House, the Senate, and the White House, the only way to do that is to offer an alternative to the extremism of Trumpism, not to mirror it. How do you know that?
I understand you're making a point about the clearly offensive things that he has said throughout his time in public life. But there is clearly an audience for Hassan Piker's political message. So I'm saying, how do you separate those two things? How do you deal with the reality that Democrats have changed on terms of like America's relationship to Israel?
That things like Medicare for all are increasingly popular, like things like abolish ICE are growing in popularity. So I'm saying that is, I think, a more full representation of the stuff he talks about politically. How are you dealing with that shift among the Democratic base, even if you're making the argument that he himself is offensive?
So in 2025, in the off year elections, right, Mondani, a Democratic socialist, won in New York. Right. And Sheryl and Spanberger won in New Jersey and Virginia. They were both moderates. Yeah. Where was turnout higher? New York, Virginia, or New Jersey? That feels like an unfair question from a local to statewide election. Like, come on.
Come on, we're talking about a mayor's race versus a governor's race.
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Chapter 8: How do Hasan Piker's views challenge traditional Democratic strategies?
But I don't want a voter with a left-wing vision. Is it true that there are deep left places in the United States where you can make even more blue? Of course there are. But that's not the central political challenge of our time. If you want to beat MAGA is to make blue places bluer. It's to flip red places to blue. And the track record there is unequivocal.
These folks have tried over and over and over since 2018. They only make blue places bluer. So I reject the premise of your question. It is true that Mondani can be popular in a deep blue place. And it's also true that lots and lots of moderates can get elected in purple and red places. Those things are simultaneously true. They don't disprove each other.
Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I think that particularly to your point about like the left coalitions not necessarily succeeding in red to blue places. I think that's unequivocally true. Their goal seems to be a little different.
Their goal is to somewhat change the Democratic Party and the way that, you know, MAGA and Trump, others had a specific goal of changing the Republican Party through primaries, through through pushing candidates that believe a specific vision. It seems like we're talking about kind of two different things.
But, I mean, let's ask a question. If the existential threat politically of our time is MAGA and Trump, the job is to beat them, to win the White House, to flip the Senate, and to flip the House. That's the job. Why would you then try to make blue places bluer? That's a serious distraction if you believe that MAGA is an existential threat to our democracy and our way of life.
Donald Trump is president right now, not because of progressives, really.
You know, like the existential threat of Donald Trump, that goal, Democrats failed it. Like he won again. It's all I'm saying. Like, it doesn't seem to me that the question is about the existential threat of MAGA. It feels to me that really where the left and others are trying to do is say in the rubble, that is this Donald Trump reality. How is the kind of Democratic Party moving forward?
It actually seemed like you were kind of leaning in that question, too, in terms of shaping the Democratic Party's future also. So I feel like this red to blue point is kind of a diversion from what you all are both doing. which is pushing the democratic party.
But I don't think it's a diversion at all. Meaning this instead, if you're offering a vision for the future of the democratic party, right? That vision cannot just be your dreams of what you want to have happen. It has to be grounded in political reality, right? Your vision has to have at least 50% of what you're offering has to be concrete proof that you can over and over and over again,
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