Hasan Piker Is Taking the Corporatist Democratic Establishment to Task . . . And Its Media Mouthpieces Are Not Happy

Mike Figueredo (right) begins his September 18 Humanist Report segment with the following:

After months of obsessive coverage of Twitch streamer Hasan Piker [above], some [corporate] mainstream news outlets finally decided to invite him on to talk to him directly. The problem, however, is that these interviews were obviously bad faith attempts to bait him into saying something “controversial” to delegitimize the left – and Abdul El-Sayed, specifically. In this video we’ll talk about Hasan’s interviews with Axios and MS NOW and why they were so bad.

Figueredo’s timely and insightful 26-minute video commentary can be viewed in its entirety below. It's followed by an excerpt from an article published earlier today by The New Arab which speaks to Piker's support of non-corporatist Democrats, such as Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed.

Hasan Piker’s following has been large enough that he’s been able to mobilise support for outsider candidates in the Democratic Party. For instance, he’s widely considered to have played a crucial role in Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign.

Several other Democrats from the “democratic socialist” wing of the parties have appeared on his stream in the last year, or have benefited from his fundraising efforts. The most prominent has been Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the Michigan Senate election, who has even had Piker speak at his rallies.

[. . .] A couple of months ago I thought the liberal hysteria at the spectre of Hasan Piker had reached its peak when the U.K. banned him from entering the country due to the “risk [he] may pose to U.K. society.” But since then, the Democratic Party-aligned press in particular seems to have become somewhat obsessed with him.

It’s no exaggeration to say his name is being mentioned practically daily in mainstream coverage, as though he were a major player in U.S. politics.

In the last few weeks, Piker has been condemned as “dangerous, malicious and antisemitic” by Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in Congress. Other Democratic Congress members have chimed in, with one saying Piker has a history of “hateful ideas and antisemitic remarks”, or claiming his rhetoric is “right out of the Nazi playbook.”

This all seems a bit much for a man who’s given lengthy speeches opposing antisemitism, or who recently squeamishly replied, “I’m a little too woke for this,” when Norman Finkelstein said on his stream that he “doesn’t talk to Israelis” after the Gaza genocide.

But of course, we have to directly address the issue here. Although his other leftist opinions may be controversial, the real sticking point against Hasan Piker is his principled and well-articulated opposition to the state of Israel. That’s the central thrust behind all of the attacks on him.

Underlying all of this is the severe anxiety that support for Israel in the United States is deteriorating across the board, but especially with Democratic voters, where it is now a ‘fringe position’. The number of Democratic voters who say they have a positive view of Israel is now 13%, which is lower than the percentage who support banning all abortions.

So how can the party leadership rationalise being so diehard in support of a position the vast majority of their members oppose? Right now, Hasan Piker has become their scapegoat. Similar to how a lot of Americans vastly exaggerate the amount of influence Vladimir Putin has in domestic U.S. politics to avoid dealing with the uncomfortable fact that MAGA is homegrown, the Democratic establishment has convinced themselves that their members’ sharp turn against Israel is not because they’ve had to watch them commit a live-streamed genocide for almost three years; it’s because a witty Twitch streamer bamboozled them into it.

– Daniel Lindley
Excerpted from "Why Hasan Piker Has
Become a Target for U.S. Democrats
The New Arab
September 27, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Yes, The U.S. Is the World’s Biggest Terrorist – Kyle Kulinski (Current Affairs, September 22, 2026).
Republicans Try to Shame Hasan Piker with a Near-Naked Pic During Messy Midterm Convention – Kelby Vera (The Huffington Post, September 9, 2026). Hasan Piker Is Upbeat About Abdul El-Sayed – and the Trajectory of the Left-wing Movement – Adam Wren (Politico, August 4, 2026).
Why Is Hasan Piker ‘Not Conducive to the Public Good’? Because on Gaza, We Punish the Witness, Not the Crime – Arwa Mahdawi (The Guardian, June 4, 2026).

UPDATES: Hasan Piker Rallies Socialist Support at Sage Chapel and Garners National Attention – Mary Caitlin Cronin and Giselle Redmond (The Cornell Daily Sun, September 28, 2026).
Hasan Piker’s University of Texas Visit Causes Chaos as School Tries to Distance Itself from Event – David Zimmermann (Washington Examiner, September 28, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Four Political Commentaries Worth Viewing
• Hasan Piker on Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Hasan Piker in Conversation with Marianne Williamson