WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats are lining up to criticize Hasan Piker for his routine antisemitic comments, most recently saying that American Jews supporting Israel are inciting violence.
Yet, Abdul El-Sayed still has not condemned his friend – releasing a statement that doesn’t even mention Piker by name.
Here are the Democrats that are willing to condemn Hasan Piker:
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI-11): “Long before the toxicity of a king demagogue and propeller of anti western hate entered the Michigan Senate primary, a joint fundraising group that also likely supports Piker and randomly chosen democrats both elected and seeking office: Majority Dems and the Bench created a hate fuel campaigned that attacked me on very personal and anti-zionist levels. I to this day have no idea who this group is or why they chose to run a hate campaign against me and I use this opportunity to call on whoever is the Majority Dems and the Bench to disavow Piker and bring Democrats together to defeat Republicans in November.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08): “Yes, those comments were dangerous, malicious, and antisemitic, and should not be tolerated by anyone in the public square… Everybody, regardless of ideological perspective, should be willing to denounce this rise of antisemitic rhetoric, hate crimes, and bigotry and actually try to move us to a society where we embrace everyone.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08): “The malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic. There is zero justification for threats against the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate. We will fight the cancer of antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now.”
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin: “Criticizing the policies and actions of the Israeli government is one thing. Blaming American Jews for the hatred, threats, and violence directed at them is something else entirely. It is dangerous, wrong, and antisemitic. No Jewish American should be held responsible for the actions of a foreign government, and there is never any justification for threatening the safety of Jewish communities. We must confront antisemitism wherever it appears, with resolve and zero tolerance.”
Democrat Congressional Candidate for MI-11 Jeremy Moss: “I will not be lectured by a California podcaster about what Oakland County, Michigan’s Jewish community should and shouldn’t believe. And we certainly won’t be gaslit that we’re responsible for the antisemitic harm upon us. The attempted murder of Jewish children in West Bloomfield has no justification.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI): “In a time where political violence and anti-semitism has been spiking— and where just 6 months ago Michigan had a nearly deadly event of anti-semitic mass violence at Temple Israel — no one should causally be suggesting that anyone, Jews or otherwise, are to blame for being targeted.”
Rep. Hilary Scholten (D-MI-03): “Hasan Piker’s calls for violence against American Jews, and directly naming a Michigan elected official (and future Congressional colleague) Jeremy Moss are unacceptable. Full stop. Piker is a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance. It’s dangerous for everyone. We should all be calling out this disgusting rhetoric so it loses it’s grip on our politics once and for all. It has no place in Michigan, and no place in our country.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): “Hasan Piker’s dangerous and hateful language targeting Jewish Americans has no place in our civic discourse. Suggesting that Jewish Americans bear responsibility for hatred or violence directed against them is wrong, dangerous, and antisemitic. We can, and should, argue fiercely over policy. We should have meaningful dialogue and debate about the policies and actions of the Israeli government and American foreign policy. That is the lifeblood of democracy. But that’s not what this is. No American should be told that their political beliefs make them responsible for hatred or violence directed against them. There is a bright line between vigorous debate and rhetoric that stokes hatred toward our neighbors. Mr. Piker has crossed that line, repeatedly and unmistakably.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV): “Hasan Piker has been trafficking in antisemitic tropes for a while but even this is a new low. Blaming Jewish Americans for the violence and hate they’re facing is not just wrong, it provides an excuse to those perpetuating these anti-Jewish hate crimes. Let me be absolutely clear: crimes against Jews for being Jews is antisemitism plain and simple. There’s no excuse for it.”
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: “I didn’t think @hasanthehun ’s poisonous brand of performative antisemitism could get more repugnant, but I was wrong. Suggesting that American Jews are somehow responsible for violence directed against them is reprehensible and there is no context that makes it acceptable — full stop. Leadership means drawing a line. Every Democrat, especially those who have embraced or elevated Piker, need to forcefully and unequivocally condemn his hateful comments.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-05): “Telling millions of followers that Jewish Americans are bringing violence on themselves is blatantly antisemitic and one of the oldest tropes in the book. Anyone who campaigns with Piker or elevates him is complicit in the rising antisemitism and anti-American hatred in this country. There’s no room for it in the Democratic Party.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL-10): “Hasan Piker’s recent ‘victim-blaming comments inciting violence against American Jews reflect one of the oldest strategies long deployed by bigots and tyrants alike. His most recent diatribe is consistent with his history of antisemitic statements. Five months ago, I called Piker an ‘unapologetic antisemite’ and said, ‘Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry, antisemitism, and hate when our Members of Congress & candidates are celebrating or, worse yet, platforming those who espouse hate of any kind.’ I stand by that charge even more strongly today. Hasan Piker’s hateful ideas and antisemitic remarks have no place in America or our nation’s politics.”
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04): “Framing violence against Jewish Americans as something they brought on themselves shifts the blame from the perpetrators onto the very people they want to harm. That’s dangerous, and it makes our communities less safe. We must reject antisemitism and intolerance in all its forms.
Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV-03): “Claims that American Jews are responsible for the violence being committed against their communities are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. It’s dangerous and antisemitic. We must stand up to the scourge of antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15): “The extremes of American politics love to blame Jews for antisemitism rather than the antisemites themselves. Let me put it plainly: there is absolutely no justification for antisemitism. There never has been, and there never will be. No amount of victim-blaming or gaslighting by Hasan Piker can shift moral responsibility away from where it belongs: the antisemites who commit acts of violence and terror against Jews.”
Democrat Congressional Candidate for NY-12 Micah Lasher: “Defenders — and some critics — of Hasan Piker just don’t get it. The issue isn’t (just) that he lumps all Jews together and holds us all accountable for the supposed evils of Israel. It’s that his nonstop drive to demonize the world’s sole Jewish state, along with those who support its survival, crosses the line — by miles — between criticism and Jew hatred of the ancient variety. Also, Mr. Piker, Zionism is in fact bound up with Judaism. It is not “false conflation.” Yes, some Jews are anti-Zionists. And yes, you have helped turn the Z-word into a slur such that large numbers of Jews, particularly younger ones, disown it partly out of misunderstanding. But when Jews are attacked for supporting Israel, they are being attacked for a core part of their Jewish identity. It is Jew hatred; it is unacceptable, and your rhetoric encourages it. Spare us all your taxonomy of good Jews and bad Jews.”
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