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Journalist and “2WAY” host Mark Halperin called far-left streamer Hasan Piker a “horrible person” and said he was a possible exception to his rule about showing a presumption of grace to all.
“That’s kind of our mantra here, show the presumption of grace to all, with the possible exception of Hasan Piker, the more I learn about the guy, the more I believe he is an exception to the rule that we should be showing the presumption of grace to all. He seems to be a horrible person,” Halperin said during a “2Way Tonight” conversation.
Halperin called him “over the top” and noted the streamer’s ties to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who he has campaigned with.
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El-Sayed is also endorsed by several prominent Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., (L) and influencer and left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker (C) stand with Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong during a campaign rally for Hong on Aug. 2, 2026. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
Hyma Moore told Halperin during the conversation that Democrats were going to need to make a difficult decision about Piker.
“So I think what politicians are going to have to say now is, look, is it more important for us to connect with Hasan Piker’s large audience or should we just stop giving him a platform to build on?” he said. “I think Democrats are going to have to make a hard decision. What’s more important? Expanding the audience or having Hasan have this large platform where he is starting to be really irresponsible with.”
Kavian Shroff, a moderate Democratic political analyst who worked on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, told Digital in a statement that Piker is a huge electoral liability for the Democratic Party.
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“Piker is a huge electoral liability for Democrats. He may help candidates on the farther left get attention and online support during the primaries, but as we are already seeing in Michigan, Republicans would much rather run against a figure like Piker than the actual candidate on the ballot. That’s why it’s a problem when folks like Abdul El-Sayed campaign so closely with him, because then it’s hard to draw real distance from that line of attack,” Schroff said.
Schroff said Piker hated the party and argued he spent more time attacking moderate Democrats than Republicans.
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker is facing renewed scrutiny after viewers spotted a framed newspaper front page from Sept. 12, 2001, in his background. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
“I was a 2024 DNC delegate and I think a lot of Democrats are still traumatized by that loss and blame it on losing ground online and with young men particularly. That has created a lot of insecurity where Democrats are embracing figures like Piker out of a sort of desperation, but it won’t serve us in the long run,” he added.
Schroff pointed to Piker’s “vile comments” about 9/11 and said Piker “joked about sex with minors, and repeatedly spread disinformation.” He also pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., admitting during a CNN interview that Piker had a large following that could reach voters.
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“He has no place in our party, and I’d encourage other Democrats to think about what their values are here,” he said. “When it comes down to it, it’s pretty sad to see folks like Bernie Sanders defend Piker, acknowledging he has toxic views but reverting to ‘he has a whole lot of followers’ as a justification for aligning and campaigning with him.”
Sanders was asked during a CNN interview on Tuesday if he was comfortable with Piker’s 9/11 remarks. The streamer once said America deserved 9/11.
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“I think that’s a dumb statement,” Sanders said. “On the other hand, he has a whole lot of followers and a lot of things that he’s saying that are making sense to a lot of people. I think, you know, we have to get above cancel culture. You know, when you’re doing radio, whatever they do, podcasts three hours a day, you say dumb things.”
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“I suspect if you go back over your career, there may be one or two things that you’ve said that you may have regretted,” the senator told CNN’s Abby Phillip. “But I think what we have got to do is look at the totality of where people are coming from and go forward.”
