Some Democrats Bash Hasan Piker for Backing Iranian Regime, Al-Qaida in Prime-Time Interview

Pedro Rodriguez

•   September 18, 2026

Hasan Piker, the leftist Twitch streamer who campaigned with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and other prominent Democrats, is under scrutiny from some Democrat officials after he defended the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions and other Islamic terrorist organizations during an interview with Axios.

Reps. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., were among those who dismissed the streamer’s comments and offered their condemnation.

Gottheimer described the comments as intentional, adding that the streamer has “built a brand on anti-American hate.”

“This is a man who said America ‘deserved’ 9/11, who framed a newspaper with the twin towers on it for his backdrop, and who has spent years excusing the very terrorists who’ve targeted our country,” the representative continued on X. “That’s not edgy commentary; that’s contempt for America.”

Torres added that “rather strangely,” Piker has “a rule against criticizing Mao Zedong,” the former communist Chinese ruler behind the deaths of an estimated 40 million to 80 million people.

“Piker condemns America while refusing to condemn one of the 20th century’s deadliest dictators, instead lionizing Mao as one of the world’s ‘great leaders,’” he continued.

In the Senate, when asked point-blank by a reporter about the comments, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said Piker is obviously “wrong” about his al-Qaida remarks and quickly moved on.

During his interview, the controversial streamer stated that he believes that the United States is “pound-for-pound” worse than the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaida, the authors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

However, despite the opposition, leading progressive voices, especially those who have campaigned alongside him, have remained silent on the issue.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who previously championed Piker, stated on Thursday that she “almost pays attention to 1 out of every 10” opinions of longtime Democrat strategist James Carville, who claimed that he is considering leaving the Democratic Party because of the streamer’s influential views.

Piker said he supports the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions because he believes it could help Iran achieve diplomacy with the United States.

“The Iranian government, regardless of whether you want to trust them or not … has proven that they are utilizing the conversation of enriched uranium as a point of leverage to bring America back to the table to get sanctions relief,” Piker said.

El-Sayed himself, who campaigned alongside Piker several times this year, told Axios in a statement after the interview that he does “not agree with the statement [on al-Qaida],” dismissing Piker as “a social media streamer” who does not hold “much weight.”

Instead, El-Sayed added that he is “more concerned with the dangerous policies of [President] Donald Trump and [Republican Senate candidate] Mike Rogers that are raising the prices of gas, groceries, and health care for Michiganders.”

However, El-Sayed did not speak on Piker’s comments about Iran.

El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Pedro Rodriguez
Pedro Rodriguez | Journalism Fellow
Pedro Boccalato Rodriguez-Aparicio is a journalism fellow at the Daily Signal.

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