9/1/26: Hasan Piker Interviewed On Dem Attacks, Abdul, Media & MORE!

26:45So I just see it as a unfortunate byproduct of doing this job. I see it in the same vein as, you know, getting swatted and getting stalked and harassed. Yeah. It sucks. It shouldn't happen. But it does. Right. Yeah. And you also wouldn't have to take the L on that. Now, having said that. Yeah, I was going to say, you also wouldn't have the position that you have as a leader if you didn't do what you do. Like, that's what enables you to marshal your community to make calls and go canvas and fundraise for these candidates. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a really great organizing vehicle, especially if someone is stubborn enough to push through the negativity.

27:27And if someone is resilient enough, someone has a moral compass and and they abide by that over anything else. you know you can you can get on on the other side of that with a with a force that you can deploy towards specific towards specific policy positions that the overwhelming majority of americans actually demand and yet politicians do not represent at all for some weird reason but i think that's ultimately the reason why i'm getting attacked all the time is because it's not just about Israel, obviously. It's about corporate lobbyists and their influence in Washington, D.C. as well. There's got to be a reason as to why so many politicians all around the country place the interests of corporate profits over the interests of the masses.

28:17And someone has to be a platform for the anxiety and the enmity and the anger that people feel. And I am that platform. I am that megaphone. So, yes, I have a lot of very powerful enemies in the process, from Elon Musk to even the president has now mentioned me. But I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing because someone has to be out there fighting back. Someone has to be out there marshalling the forces and galvanizing the masses and making sure that we make these necessary changes because I feel like this crisis is far too large to avoid. But in your analysis, you're assuming you're net positive.

28:53Has this made you question whether you're net negative? Yeah, I mean, I personally do, yes. And I'm fairly certain that many of these left insurgent candidates also feel that way, regardless of how hard they get punished for their affiliations. And yeah, I think DSA probably feels that way as well. Many, many members in my community and many members overall, many Americans overall, whether they have a positive feeling with me, a positive feeling of me or a negative one, doesn't matter. If we were to implement some of the policies that we're advocating for, that we're going to consistently continue pushing for, whether it be Medicare for all or an arms embargo on Israel, I'm fairly certain that this would have positive reverberations for all Americans, maybe even people all around the world, if we were to maybe scale back on our endless militarism.

29:42They don't have to like me. They can just get out of the way. Yeah, well, the interesting thing is, if you look at the Democratic primaries in particular, I don't think there's there's no doubt that you were in that positive. If you look at they tried to make you a major issue in the Zoran versus Cuomo fight, completely failed. They tried to make you a major issue in the Abdul versus Haley Stevens fight. And not only that fail, I mean, you can look at Abdul's polls after you were made this sort of wedge issue in the Democratic primary is when he takes off. Mallory McMorrow takes the other side of that.

30:17She ultimately has to drop out and he's able to to secure a victory. So do you think that in the general election, do you think Republicans feel that this is working for them? Do you think that establishment Democrats feel that this is working for them? And what would your advice be to candidates like, you know, the John Ossoff's of the world if he could go back and do it over again? How should they handle questions about you? um i think it's the reason why people are attacking me is because it has failed so far it's because we are succeeding right uh when you go back to 2010 the tea party movement was backed by the coke brothers it was astroturfed entirely um and they only got four uh new members elected two open seats two incumbents were flipped in the republican party we've had more than 10 at this point um all around the country and it's entirely grassroots funded it's entirely backed by the people and in some of these races like abdul's there's also 74 million dollars in outside expenditures coming in and attacking him i mean he was outspent 12 to 1 something along those lines and there are also races that i'm not involved in where uh candidates that are left populous are outperforming expectations.

31:35Peggy Flanagan is a great example of this in Minnesota. She was outspent, I believe, six to one. Yeah. Similar story with Angie Nixon in the, in the primaries as well. So this isn't just about me. Um, I'm just, uh, uh, the person that, uh, is, is, uh, the easiest to disparage as a movement leader. Right. Um, and I'm very stubborn, so I'll push through it regardless uh it doesn't feel great but it doesn't really matter but that is the reason there's a reason why they're attacking me it's not because uh all of a sudden um i don't know a congressperson in in uh las vegas found out about who i was and and started watching some clips and got really angry right i don't think that's the reason i mean someone is giving them notes on what to say.

32:28There's no, there's no world where someone like Debbie Stabenow in Michigan knows who I am, right? Someone told her like, you have to speak on this. This is a bad guy. Here are some of the quotes that he's made. You have to go out and condemn this guy. And Debbie comes out and says, this guy's a vicious anti-Semite. We got to deal with them. Do you think that Democrats handle these outrage cycles different than Republicans do? Like, do you think there's something for democratic candidates to learn from this sort of fuck you energy of Republicans from Trump on down. Yes, they need to lean into their base.

33:01They need to lean into the anger that their base is representing right now. Democrats need to stop playing ball with cynical actors. Okay. I don't do it. I wish they wouldn't do it either. It's very frustrating to watch Democrats play politics at a time when the rules have changed. We live in the post-Trump universe. And I think there are a lot of people who still want to go back to a time when politicians could have reasonable discussion on television and people valued the truth. It's like, I value the truth. You should value the truth. You should always say the truth. But you also don't have to be so bashful.

33:42You don't have to be so scared. You don't have to be so meek. You don't have to take your opposition's cynical framing. Republicans know that that is a weakness. They have identified it and they successfully weaponize it against the Democrats all the time. This media cycle could have been handled very differently. Democrats could have come out from the start and been like, we're talking about a random Twitch streamer. He campaigned with Abdul Saeed. He was a surrogate for Abdul Saeed. Sure. Okay. Look at your own side. Donald Trump is currently the president you're talking you're you're telling me that this is sam piker guy we are supposed to hold him a podcast or a twitch streamer to a higher standard than the president of the united states of america who isn't just saying unhinged things i mean he literally said he was going to do a genocide in iran a couple months ago right but he's also doing uh horrible things he's doing unlimited amounts of violence he's destroying the american economy he's destroying the global economy and and we're supposed to sit here and and constantly complain about a twist from it this is ridiculous it's preposterous if democrats came out in unison and and dealt with the issue uh uh with with sincerity and with a little bit with a little bit more anger the same anger that their base feels i think this story would have been packed up easily they would have been able to deflect this barrage of Republican attacks.

35:06And then from that point on, the media could have me on to ask me to interrogate and examine my worldview. Why is that not happening? I mean, Jake Tapper had Max Miller on. Max Miller allegedly abused his wife and his two-year-old daughter, allegedly, right? There's a court proceeding that took place. This is the daughter of the Ohio Senator Bernie Marino. Jake Tapper had him on the show to interrogate him. Republicans are not even talking about him right now. And that's partially because Democrats are too busy yelling about me. So it's not even just about like the Laura Loomers of the world, which I don't even think is an apt comparison.

35:47If I spoke about Jewish people in the way that Laura Loomer speaks about black people or Muslim people, I'd be shot. I'd go to prison, I think. And I don't feel that way. Right. I don't I feel like this is she she represents some of the most odious views that that we're desperately trying to move on from the desperately trying to run away from desperately trying to disavow. And yet she gets to operate as a as a attack dog for the Republican Party with regular frequency, partially because Democrats are constantly eating the bait and they're constantly worried about whatever the Republicans want them to be worried about.

36:27We have to stop apologizing to the Republicans. We have to stop leaning in to the cynical ways in which the Republicans choose to rip apart the base. We have to unite and become the anti-Trump coalition force that is necessary to fight back against Trumpism, to fight back against fascism, and to preserve what remains of American theoretical democracy. time is running out and I really wish that established Democrats were smarter about this didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast here's what you missed and the argument is do you want to win if you don't win you have no power it's real those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interests and they complain about the very thing to receive.

37:20It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off. I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y 'all gonna scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. 12 seats, those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the south now. And download Roland Martin Unfiltered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

38:01College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Solid Verbal College Football Show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. How's it going? Every week, we preview the games that matter, sort through the biggest storylines, and tell you what to watch before kickoff. There's a lot to keep track of. Who's for real? Which upset is hiding in plain sight? And which storyline is about to take over your group chat? And when the games are over, join us in the aftermath too. We're going to react to what happened, talk about the biggest results, of course we'll cover the playoff picture, and all the little details you might have missed while flipping between like 12 games at once.

38:44Whether you know every coach and coordinator or just want to understand why everybody is yelling, we're here to help make sense of the madness. Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my love. Starting your day can be tough. You wake up, maybe hit snooze, and then scroll on your phone for a while, checking your emails, all before even giving yourself the chance to really open your eyes and breathe. And I want to help you break that cycle. My name is Ryan Weiss, and for the past 15 years, I've been an emotional intelligence coach and spiritual guide.

39:26And I'm here to share with you my new podcast, Waking Up With Ryan. Waking Up With Ryan is a daily audio video podcast to interrupt the inertia of your fear, your ego, and judgment. Here to help you connect with yourself before the noise of the day takes over. So let's start our days together with a moment of calm, a moment of reflection and meditation, a moment that's just for you. Listen to Waking Up With Ryan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts In their mind their belief is that an alliance and an elevation of someone like yourself with the past quote of America deserved 9-11 I know you've apologized for it you did say it I think you even said at the time should I say it?

40:15something like that I said fuck it I'm saying it yeah right and so you know you're a young guy you knew it was bad you apologized for it I believe the next day on Chank's show the question then is they believe that to achieve the coalition is that to have someone who has said these things, someone who was part of, quote, woke one, even though I know you've kind of moved on from that, or at least in our last discussion, you certainly had that this would be electorally detrimental to the independent voter. And, you know, what you've just said is that, oh, we need to give to the Democratic base. But there are positions, things, not even just you said, things Abdul Abdul have said that he's had to walk away from, which could be big problems for him coming into the midterm election.

40:59So how do you square that? If that you do have the, let's say, a union guy, he voted for Trump. He's pissed off about prices. But he's not so down, let's say, with woke one, defund the police, America deserved 9-11. What's your role in that if you prevent him necessarily from voting for Abdul El-Sayed? Yeah, so first of all, you know, I'm not going to be able to captivate the attention of every single person, right? Like that. I know that already. I know that I'm not appealing to like a 75 year old retiree, small business owner, finance executive. They're they're probably not going to be super fans of mine.

41:34Right. I'm here for the under 45 young men in particular who never really see responsive politics. They never they've developed too much apathy. They've gone out. They've protested. They maybe even voted for a couple of Democrats that they didn't really like. They plugged their nose and they did it because they believe in harm reduction. And now they're sick and tired of it. Right now they're looking for an alternative. They're looking for someone who's actually going to fight back, actually going to represent their needs. Right. So that's my goal. As far as as far as how frustrating this could be to hold together a larger coalition, we were, again, taking for granted a lot of these other voters.

42:19A lot of these people that I'm bringing on to not only participate in their civic duty, but also participate in a more meaningful manner in getting others to come out and vote. On the other side, of course, politician or politics are about addition, not subtraction. Right. So I'm totally on board with bringing on people who are independents, people who have different opinions than me into into this broad coalition. It's those on the other side. It's those on the right, the right wing of the Democratic Party, the right wing in the consulting class that actually oppose our involvement in any way, shape or form.

43:05That's that's that's the that's the real issue. I want to build a big tent. They don't. I understand that we have to organize the masses to make sure that we have a strong enough base of support to get this agenda done. I believe in democracy. They do not. They don't want to hear from the masses. They don't want to hear about their discontent. They just want everybody to shut up and vote for the Democrats. And they're very frustrated that now there is a massive platform like yours as well, that actually expresses this discontent with regular frequency and is growing and is making up for the limited credibility that mainstream media has at this moment.

43:48Well, and the real problem for them, too, is that your views now are much more aligned with the 70-year-old retiree in the Democratic Party base than the Democratic establishment is at this point. And so, you know, that's why you pose a particular threat to them. My last question for you, Hassan, is just, you know, do you have any other plans in terms of tactics to fight back? Are you pursuing a defamation lawsuit against Scott Jennings, for example? What are your thoughts on that? yeah i'm i'm continuing along with that and uh we'll see uh we'll see where this goes because i i feel like it has gotten uh it's gotten completely out of control i i think someone has to like someone has to fight back uh someone has to fight back because i just we can't go on like this we have no consensus reality we have no consensus reality i get so frustrated about this i i spend a good deal of my, my time every day, trying to identify misinformation and disinformation that runs among on, on the internet and, and try to get people to, to understand what's exact, what's actually going on.

44:55And it's so frustrating to see the, the way that people trafficking defamation and slander and smears. And I think it's partially because no one's really pushing back. No one's really fighting back. In a different timeline, I think the way this would work is you'd get punished for it, right? If you were actively getting paid to slander people, mainstream outlets would probably say, all right, we're going to make sure that you either recalibrate your commentary or you're done, you're out. And yet Scott Jennings, I would say, goes on CNN every night specifically for that purpose. So we can be an attack dog for Donald Trump.

45:39So we can audition to be the white house press secretary. Right. And, and this is this weird, mutually beneficial relationship, uh, for, for CNN executives who, who want to win favor with the Ellisons and CNN, uh, top anchors and top producers who want to make sure that they don't get fired in the Ellison purchase. Right. Um, so they're, they're playing that role, but I think in the process of playing that role, they are destroying what remains of the credibility of CNN as an institution. People already, people on the right and many independents already despise CNN. And now they're going to burn their credibility with a lot of liberals as well.

46:16And I don't know if it's, if, if it's worth it, I don't, I don't want to live in a world where there is, uh, there's no reliability in mainstream outlets. I, I, unfortunately we live in that world right now for a bunch of different issues, right? When it comes to American foreign policy, I don't expect any of these major outlets, these legacy publishers to actually do serious investigative reporting. Every now and then they'll do it in an effort to regain some of that credibility, right? There'll be like one article or two investigative reports that come out maybe months after the fact. And we'll say, wow, that's interesting.

46:51I can't believe New York Times reported on this finally. But I wish that they were there. I wish that they were there from the start because this is a real crisis. Yeah. Well, and the thing is you as a streamer, you give them a lot of commentary to work with, but the truth of the matter is what they did to you, they could do to anyone. They could take, I mean, the same sentiment you expressed about Jewish Americans, something Sovereign and I both expressed many times on this show and is thoroughly, should be thoroughly uncontroversial, would be easy enough to clip something out of context, put it out there in the world and completely mischaracterize what any public commentator says so i did the mark rovolo yeah they did the mark rovolo at the same time they were doing it to me and they did it to abdul the hurt people hurt people comment if you watch the four minute video that he put out because the first day of the synagogue attack abdul comes out with a statement just straightforward condemnation uh completely unacceptable because it is right it's completely unacceptable people should never have to fear of a uh of an attack when they're in a place of worship like that's ridiculous right so he comes out with the condemnation and then the next day he explains the cycle of violence he explains the cycle of violence and in the process of explaining the cycle of violence and how you know violent incidents uh cause violent and unacceptable completely unacceptable uh violent retaliation against you know civilians against people who uh didn't participate in this in any meaningful manner whatsoever and and that the person who did this was a heinous person was a small person um all this stuff he does this like four minute video and they just nailed down the hurt people hurt people quote to make it seem like abdul was just like disparaging the concerns of of jewish folk he did apologize though sometimes you have to sometimes you literally cave to the mob it's it just it sucks but it's the truth you you when you're running for office sometimes you're just going to have to say look I didn't intend for this to turn into a massive problem.

48:54I didn't intend for you to misunderstand my position. I shouldn't have said anything. And that's what he did. And I hope that people see that as humility and grace and understand that he's not this scary Islamist, jihadist guy that he's being presented as. That doesn't fit with your fighting energy earlier. This is just kind of, you know, because to me it seems like, you know, look, Abdul frequently just deletes stuff and pretends that he never said outright lies about what he said about defund the police. Just delete stuff that he said about transgenderism and kids, decides not to talk about it, talk about adult circumcision.

49:28In this case, he felt like he had to apologize. I don't know, I just read it a little differently. It's like, it's pretty clear that he did think that he screwed up, even though I agree with you necessarily on the sentiment. Do you disagree with the sentiment though? No, no, no, listen, I'm not one of these pro cancel culture freaks. I just look at his behavior and I'm like, okay, so he'll lie about, I didn't say defund the police. He'll lie about one of his previous past positions on transgender, you know, circumcision, or conflated to circumcision. But on this one, he's like, oh, I have to apologize.

49:55I'm like, I don't know. I mean, it seems like he feels, especially considering what happened with this Jeremy Moss situation, and now with this, and then yesterday, he's speaking at some Jewish Democrats event, and, you know, he's, you know, doing his absolute best to make sure he's like, I'm here, I love you all, et cetera. It seems to him, for him having said, screw you to many other attacks in the past, he seems to believe that this is a problem that's all i'm saying that's part of the reason you know in this interview i'm like i'm curious in that assessment of his behavior he is behaving not as if this is like a humility exercise but as in this is an actual electoral problem for me in this race yeah i don't know to what degree it's a it's a serious problem i think we're just reading the tea leaves at this point um yeah but i mean that's just politics that's as politics.

50:47You gotta, you gotta win over as broad a coalition as possible. Um, there's a real crisis here. If we allow someone like Mike Rogers to, to come into office, uh, who is, is going to be a rubber stamp on Trump's agenda. Someone who has actually been an advocate for mass surveillance, uh, uh, since, uh, since the post nine 11, uh, days, someone who is an advocate for going to war, someone who was an advocate for going to war with Iran. Uh, and now we're in that war with Iran. These are people who are going to try to run away from much more nefarious positions than, uh, than, than people who demonstrate the basic American, uh, mentality, which is, I think medical decisions should be kept between a patient and a doctor because that's what the transgender issue is all about at the end of the day.

51:37Um, I don't really, uh, I don't really care about what people have said in the past, as far as like how woke they were. Um, and you said, I was a trafficker in woke 1.0. Right. I mean, I got yelled at quite a bit from people who were, were not even to my left necessarily, but people who presented themselves as to my left at the time, because I would constantly say, I'm not saying Latin X, I'm not doing all this and that. I didn't make a big deal about it though. And I didn't like, you know, humiliate people for, for trying to be as accommodating as possible. But I understood that there was some social excesses that were taking place.

52:14But at the end of the day, I think we have a limited amount of time on God's green earth. I'm not going to spend it yelling at people who wanted to be as accommodating as possible to others and definitely got a little feverish at times, especially when on the other side, there are people who are just as hysterical, but also immoral because let's be real. I'm a leftist. I believe that, that this position is, is broadly the, the morally correct position, the morally correct side of the political spectrum, the political ideology, even if they're being annoying, I can, you know, engage in, uh, comradely discussions and say, Hey, maybe don't present yourself this way.

52:58I think this is not very helpful for our cause. I don't think we're, you're winning a lot of people over to our side. And, and those are productive moments of discourse on our side. It's an internal discussion, but I don't think we should be spending a great deal of time. If we're leftist, we should be spending a great deal of time constantly talking about how like people wanted to, people wanted to restructure the, the police budgets in this country that have expanded endlessly and have militarized heavily and are not, you know, producing the results they're supposed to, even though crime is actually down.

53:36So I guess to a certain degree, they are producing some results. So I can't really hate on that right now. But having said that my position on this is this, okay. My position on policing, for example, is do your job. There's three jobs in this country, three professions in this country where you get rewarded for failure. It's policing, it's CEOs and it's politicians. They fail upwards all the time. They're allowed to fail. Your car gets stolen. You call up the cops. You're like, can you please help me with this? And they look at you like You've asked them the most unacceptable thing of all time.

54:06I'm like, come on, man. This is your job. That's what I want. I want cops to do their jobs. Some of them are doing their jobs as a lady. Who releases the guy who steals the car, though? It's an interesting question, right? Who released the guy who stole the car? Is that what you said? Yeah. Well, I was like, how did it exactly get to the point where the guy's on the street? And maybe he's been released for on no cash bill, let's say, for example. Look, we don't have nearly enough time to debate the trans and police issues. This is the fun part where you and I, you know, don't even get me started about marijuana, even though I didn't even smoke weed.

54:38Well, that was going to be my parting shot is I just wanted to remind you that when you were canvassing, you went across the state of Wisconsin. Oh, I know you got mad at that. You made a great pitch. You said, Francesca Hong's going to legalize weed. And so I watched with great amusement as she lost in that primary after you promised these people that she was going to legalize. And so maybe that was directly the electoral benefit that you may have thought, Mr. Piker, to go around and promise. That lady was wearing a t-shirt and she really liked it. You just had to do it. You had to go around there.

55:20And I messaged you. that you just had to throw the weed thing in there. And so I just wanted to remind you that it didn't work. And so maybe you all - Yeah, no, she lost because of that. She lost because of Thanksgiving and she lost because of her pro-weed position. Yeah, well, I'm out here spinning that narrative. Yeah. All right, Hassan, thank you so much for getting up early for us. I know you have to go, so thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's our pleasure. Thank you guys for watching. As you can assume, the show is already late, so sorry. It's been a long interview, but we wanted to make sure we did it justice.

55:51There'll be a great show for everybody tomorrow. Ryan and Emily AMA, tune in for that.

56:11Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin Unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. People wake up and go, oh, damn, wait a minute, hold up. they changed all of that yes it's real this is a wholesale attack it is targeting black people in every federal agency it's raw white folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade catch roland martin's daily commentary on the black information network and download roland martin unfiltered on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts did you think you were the only one like no matter what you did it was never good enough for your mother.

56:46I'm Jennifer Arnese and this is the Black Mother Wound Podcast where we unpack and heal from the very first relationship that shaped us. We rush to accommodate other people when we have been hurt and our hurt has not been healed. Listen to the Black Mother Wound Podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. Honey, is it on? Is it on? Is this thing recording? This is your girl T.S. Madison coming to you loud, live, and always and forever in color from the Outlaws podcast with me, T.S. Madison. This week, Laverne Cox is back.

57:23We're talking about her new book, her controversial ex, and going off on the red carpet. 20 minutes later, he was like, let's squash this. Let's talk about it. I was like, no. You do not talk to me like that. That is unacceptable. I walked in and I was like, we need to break up. And can you ever really change a man? Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.