Who is Hasan Piker, the US left-wing streamer critics say the Democrats should reject?

JTA — Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, delivered a forceful condemnation of the popular streamer Hasan Piker on Tuesday, warning his fellow Democrats against embracing figures he says traffic in hate.

“Hasan Piker is an unapologetic antisemite,” Schneider, who chairs the New Democratic Coalition, wrote in a post on X. “Democrats risk losing our credibility to condemn those on the right who traffic in bigotry, antisemitism, & hate when our own Members of Congress & candidates are celebrating or, worse yet, platforming those who espouse hate of any kind.”

While Schneider added in a separate post that he was “proud” that the party welcomes “a broad diversity of opinions and priorities,” he stipulated that the Democratic tent must “reject those who champion ideologies of exclusion and demonization.”

Schneider’s remarks come as the Republican coalition has faced deepening rifts over the vociferously anti-Israel, and increasingly antisemitic rhetoric emanating from prominent online figures in its movement, including Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.

But as top conservatives wrestle with the growing prominence of far-right voices within the party, an adjacent battle is emerging on the Democratic side, as support for Israel among its base has reached a record low and political candidates increasingly engage with far-left, anti-Israel voices, including Piker.

Since starting his daily online broadcasts in 2018, Piker, 34, has amassed a devoted online fanbase, including 3 million followers on the streaming platform Twitch and 1.85 million on YouTube.

As one of the most prominent leftist commentators in the United States, Piker’s streams in recent years have often featured sharp critiques of the Democratic Party, Israel and US foreign policy in the Middle East, positions that have increasingly drawn scrutiny.

Piker has previously referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” compared Israelis to the Ku Klux Klan, and defended Hamas, writing in a post on X in January that the terror group is “a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state.”

On one of his shows that aired days after October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities, Piker told off a listener who condemned the massacre, saying, “Bloodthirsty violent pig dog, suck my d–-k.” In a May 2024 stream, Piker also minimized reports of the prevalence of sexual assault during the October 7 attacks, saying, “It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7th. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”

While speaking at a conference in Qatar last month, Piker said that he had lost viewers in the wake of October 7 for his commentary, explaining, “People were not ready, especially in Western audiences, for someone to say that Israel played a significant role in how October 7 took place.”

In response to a CNN article last month that noted the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran coincided with Purim, Piker wrote, “This is jewish supremacy. it’s what netenyahu said after oct7” [sic].

Piker’s incendiary commentary has earned him a 2024 “Antisemite of the Year” nomination from a watchdog group and has drawn the condemnation of Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. Greenblatt charged the streamer with using his platform to “spread anti-Jewish tropes, amplify propaganda from a designated terrorist group, and promote toxic anti-Zionism.”

In October 2024, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, a pro-Israel stalwart in the Democratic Party, wrote a letter to Twitch executives in which he called on the platform to “stop popularizing” Piker, whom he called the “antisemitic poster child for a systematically antisemitic social media platform.”

Despite the volley of criticism, Piker has dismissed allegations that he is antisemitic.

“These last two years, I’ve been called antisemitic. I abhor antisemitism, and I’ve spent my entire professional media career combating it. I just happen to be anti-Israel, and that makes me a far greater threat than the likes of Nick Fuentes because they know he’s a Nazi,” Piker told Variety last November. “I don’t find kinship with the right because I think there are some on the right that just use Israel as a new opportunity to cut through the noise.”

Piker has also increasingly hosted left-wing politicians on his platform in recent years, drawing derision from critics, including Schneider, who argue that officials risk legitimizing his commentary by appearing alongside him.

Piker has previously interviewed Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Next month, Piker is slated to appear on campuses alongside Michigan Senate candidate Abdul el-Sayed.

For many politicians, Piker is a conduit to the much-coveted younger voter. Twitch, originally designed for video games, is now widely used for music, creative content and political commentary from hosts like Piker.

The streamer also confirmed earlier this month that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, had agreed to sit for an interview with him.

“Gavin newsom is a shrewd operator. while i do not trust him on israel, it is clear that this issue has shifted so much towards the side of truth and justice that even people w 2028 ambitions are leaning into anti israel sentiment,” Piker wrote in a post on X after Newsom appeared to agree with claims that Israel is an “apartheid state” earlier this month. (This week Newsom said he regrets those comments.)

Schneider is not alone in his calls for fellow Democrats to distance themselves from Piker. Earlier this month, Jonathan Cowan, the president of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on Democrats to “draw a line in the sand.”

“Mr. Piker is anti-American, anti-women, anti-Western and antisemitic. No Democrat should engage with him. All should seek to push him to the fringe, where he belongs,” Cowan wrote.

Many in the party’s progressive wing have taken a sharply different view.

Cameron Kasky, a Jewish Gen-Z progressive who recently dropped his bid in New York’s 12th District race, pushed back on the calls to sideline Piker in post on X, arguing instead that more Democrats should sit down with him.

“Yeah, no sh–t big politicians are talking to Hasan Piker. More of them should be,” Kasky wrote. “God forbid a candidate actually work with new media, which the Right has used to dominate us.”