A wave of elected Democrats has condemned Twitch streamer Hasan Piker after he said American Jews could face violence if they keep being seen as strongly supporting Israel.
The backlash followed an August 20 livestream in which Piker displayed a photo of Democratic Michigan state Senator Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish and running for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Piker warned that Jewish Americans who kept expressing singular support for Israel would eventually invite “someone” to “take action” against them.
He has since blamed the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC for the wave of condemnations and says he welcomes it.
Newsweek reached out to Piker for comment on Thursday.
Full List of Democrats Who Have Condemned Hasan Piker
- Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader, New York
- Cory Booker, Senator, New Jersey
- Elissa Slotkin, Senator, Michigan
- Jacky Rosen, Senator, Nevada
- Jon Ossoff, Senator, Georgia
- Josh Gottheimer, Representative, New Jersey
- Ritchie Torres, Representative, New York
- Jared Moskowitz, Representative, Florida
- Brad Schneider, Representative, Illinois
- Greg Stanton, Representative, Arizona
- Hillary Scholten, Representative, Michigan
- Haley Stevens, Representative, Michigan
- Jake Auchincloss, Representative, Massachusetts
What Prompted the Backlash
Piker displayed an image of Moss during his August 20 stream. A fake audio clip had recently circulated online, falsely claiming that Moss said he ran for Congress only to preserve U.S. support for Israel. Piker used the clip to make a broader point.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” he said.
Slotkin pointed to a nearly deadly antisemitic attack near a Michigan synagogue earlier this year. “This shouldn’t be hard: no community should face the threat of violence for their political views,” she wrote. “That goes if you’re pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-choice, pro-life or any other cause you care about. And blaming the victims of violence for bringing it on themselves only further endangers people.”
Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen called the remarks “a new low” from a streamer who has “been trafficking in antisemitic tropes for a while.” Blaming Jewish Americans for the hate they face, she said, “provides an excuse to those perpetuating these anti-Jewish hate crimes.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries initially responded without naming Piker, calling the claim “dangerous and antisemitic.” Asked about Piker directly on CNN the next day, Jeffries confirmed that he was referring to him and said the remarks were “dangerous, malicious and antisemitic and should not be tolerated by anyone in the public square.”
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff was the latest to weigh in. Through a spokesperson, he said he “unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community.” He added that “American Jews and all Americans must have the freedom and security to speak out and petition their government without fear of reprisal.”
The comments came amid an existing controversy. Weeks earlier, Piker had told his audience that Democratic leaders needed to publicly defend him against Republican attacks. “You have to literally, at some point, defend me,” he said, arguing that the party needed to “take the L a little bit” and admit he was not a “dangerous, toxic radical force.”
Who Is Hasan Piker?
Piker has also become a regular surrogate for candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. He appeared alongside Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Francesca Hong in Wisconsin, and attended New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s election night watch party. He also appeared in a 2020 get-out-the-vote video with Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna has appeared on his stream multiple times.
His influence has grown during the recent election cycle, with Republicans now referring to him as El-Sayed’s running mate because of their close relationship. But his reach among Democratic voters remains limited. A national survey of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters found that six in 10 had never heard of Piker.
Piker has faced heavy criticism for past comments, including saying the United States “deserved” the September 11 attacks. He has also described Hamas as “a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state” of Israel and made comments that critics said minimized reports of sexual violence during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
The streamer responded by saying the politicians were “unanimous in their hatred” of him and that he welcomed it. He added that if they “defend Israel’s genocide, its occupation, and its child killing spree,” then “your boos mean nothing to me.”
In April, Gottheimer and New York Republican Mike Lawler introduced a bipartisan House resolution condemning antisemitic rhetoric from Piker and commentator Candace Owens. Twitch suspended Piker earlier this year for what the platform described as “improper handling of terrorist propaganda,” after he discussed a manifesto tied to the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington.
What Piker Has Said About the Criticism
The streamer responded in a series of posts on X this week, saying the politicians were “unanimous in their hatred” of him and that he welcomed it. He added that if they “defend Israel’s genocide, its occupation, and its child killing spree,” then “your boos mean nothing to me.”
Piker has not backed down. “AIPAC boss call was made,” he wrote on X. “They are unanimous in their hatred of me, and I welcome their hatred. If you’re a defender of Israel’s genocide, of its occupation, of its child killing spree, then your boos mean nothing to me.”
He pushed back against critics who said his own background made him unfit to speak about Jewish safety. He called the argument “pure racism from the egg” and “vulgar ethnoreligious tribalism.” He also criticized American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, who wrote that “Jews are now being blamed for the rise in violent hate against them.” Piker accused Deutch and other defenders of Israel of saying criticism of the country is fair game while also calling for consequences against those who voice it.
Piker also pointed to a September 2024 NBC News profile of him that did not mention Jews, Islam or Israel. He argued that the scrutiny intensified as he became more involved in Democratic primaries and backed candidates who support holding Israel accountable.
He also criticized recent committee assignments on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz, who had condemned Piker, was named ranking member of the subcommittee overseeing Middle East policy. Piker called the panel “an insane lineup of AIPAC Democrats” and said it was “an inversion of the base’s demands from the Dems on how the party should move on foreign policy.”
Piker urged his followers to track how much money each Democrat who condemned him had received from AIPAC. He called the group a “MAGA billionaire backed foreign govt lobby” and accused it of using the controversy to distract from the Trump administration ahead of the midterms.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas
