Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) said Monday that far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s comments about American Jews who support Israel are “unacceptable,” after Piker displayed a photo of Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss during a livestream.
Scholten, vice chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, issued the statement four days after the Aug. 20 broadcast. Moss is a Jewish Democrat, and he won his August primary for a vacant House seat covering Michigan’s 11th District.
The Grand Rapids Democrat called the streamer a “hack.”
“Hasan Piker’s calls for violence against American Jews, and directly naming a Michigan elected official (and future Congressional colleague) Jeremy Moss are unacceptable. Full stop,” Scholten wrote. “Piker is a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance. It’s dangerous for everyone. We should all be calling out this disgusting rhetoric so it loses it’s [sic] grip on our politics once and for all.”
Piker made the remarks about two hours into a broadcast that ran nearly seven hours, Jewish Insider reported.
“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,” Piker said.
Piker was reacting to a purported audio recording of Moss discussing Israel, the Washington Times reported. Moss denied making the statement and said the audio was fabricated.
Piker replied to Scholten’s post about two hours later, writing that if he was “an israel 1st congresswoman,” he would not spend time “actively defaming a prominent antizionist voice” over what he called “a 90/10 issue.”
Scholten answered that afternoon.
“Not Hasan Piker daydreaming about BEING me. As if. Keep dreaming, pal,” she wrote. “There’s only one of us hurting the chances of a Democratic majority in November … and it ain’t me!”
Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers tied the remarks to Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday.
“Absolutely DISGUSTING. If Abdul El-Sayed had any courage at all, he would call this out and disavow Hasan Piker once and for all,” Rogers said.
El-Sayed put out a statement Monday that never named Piker.
“I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence,” El-Sayed said. Democrats for Mike Rogers called it a “fake condemnation.”
El-Sayed closed his primary campaign at a Detroit pool party where Piker was among the guests. Scholten declined at the time to say whether she would back El-Sayed and pointed to the streamer’s record.
That record includes a 2019 comment that America “deserved” the September 11 attacks.