Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and communist streamer Hasan Piker are leaning into their bromance despite people urging the candidate to distance himself from the influencer, who has a record of making controversial comments.
During a recent livestream, Piker defended El-Sayed, saying the candidate is not moderating his anti-Israel views and support for far-leftist policies.
“I am literally the person that is being dangled,” Piker said. “And I'm going to tell you once again, he's not moderating on his perspective on Israel or anything like that. Okay. His reaction to this has always been very good”
The streamer stressed that “Politics is about addition, not subtraction.”
Hasan Piker admits on livestream that he and Abdul El-Sayed are working closely together, claiming that El-Sayed’s public attempts to distance himself from Piker are simply meant to fool voters. pic.twitter.com/IE9kd5dmFN
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 26, 2026
El-Sayed has campaigned closely with Piker, who endorsed him and joined him at events aimed at reaching younger voters. They appeared together at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan in April.
Most notably, El-Sayed refused to disavow Piker’s controversial remarks. “I’m not here to disavow people’s views,” he said. “This whole gotcha game, platform policing, cancel culture — I thought we were over it.”
However, the candidate did address Piker’s 2019 comment that “America deserved 9/11” during an appearance on NBC News’ Meet the Press. He called it “a dumb statement.”
Hasan Piker admits DSA Watch has been effective in calling out Abdul El-Sayed
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) August 24, 2026
“The saga that started with DSA Watch. They came out and tried to do a smear campaign, and I guess to a certain degree, the smear campaign has been relatively successful in undermining Abdul El-Sayed’s… pic.twitter.com/FbwfhPLhAc
Still, El-Sayed continued to campaign with the streamer. They appeared together at a Detroit pool party earlier this month just before he won the Democrat primary race.
Meanwhile, Piker is still making incendiary remarks. Last week, he appeared to blame American Jews for violence perpetrated against them over their support of Israel. “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action — not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” he said.
Tim Miller: Abdul El-Sayed has to answer for whatever anti-Israel or anti-Semitic or imaginarily anti-Semitic statement that some supporter of his said.
— Clipping Wings (@ClippingWings) August 26, 2026
Mike Rogers just gets to walk around carte blanche having his goons smearing private citizens because they have Muslim names pic.twitter.com/hDQneBVQFy
El-Sayed issued a statement on Monday saying, “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople” and “I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence.”
He added, “This is particularly true for communities that have been intimidated for their beliefs in the past.”
Still, the candidate has not cut ties with Piker.
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