Hasan Piker Has Joined the Party

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Ezra Klein (1:03)

So, the theory of the podcast this week.

I want to have on different perspectives inside the Democratic coalition, on how Democrats won power and how they should now wield it. So, Tuesday, we had on Adam Gentleson from the Searchlight Institute, a more centrist perspective. If you haven't listened to that episode, I think you should. Today, from the left, Hasan Piker. Piker is a streamer. He's on Twitch under Hasanabi. His election night live stream topped out at 200,000 people. But he also became something of a major character in this election. Stumping with DSA and leftist candidates, he was very, very both important and controversial in the Michigan Senate primary, where he was an ally of Abdul El-Sayed.

Then the Republicans tried to make him into the bogeyman of the election. He was often talked about on Fox News more than the Republican Senate candidates were. Piker was one of the people targeted in a congressional resolution by Josh Gottheimer, a more moderate Democrat, and Mike Lawler, a moderate Republican, where they were condemning the rhetoric of various online personalities. He was mentioned by Benjamin Netanyahu during Netanyahu's UN. General Assembly address.

SPEAKER_7 (2:10)

Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. Now, it's no wonder.

You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9-11. America deserved 9-11. Some friends you have.

Ezra Klein (2:35)

He was all over Republican advertising and even in a very strange way, all over the Jumbotron at Donald Trump's big midterm rally. And Piker is a sort of interesting mix of kind of radical and pragmatist, like a self-avowed socialist, somebody who really is in many ways trying to get past capitalism. And then you talk to him or you listen to him, and sometimes sounds just like a normal liberal. It is striking to me in this conversation how often what he is saying, and what Adam Jentleson are saying, are basically the same things. The place where that ends and the place where Piker himself is most controversial is Israel. And some of the things he has said there, some of the things he has argued for there. So I want to talk to Piker about the election, about how the Democratic Party should act going forward, and talk through both what he has said and the broader politics around Israel, which is one of the issues that I think has the most possibility of tearing this coalition apart.

Piker joins me now.

Hasan Piker, welcome to the show.

Hasan Piker (3:38)

Great to be here.

Ezra Klein (3:39)

So we're weak in change. That's actually just a week off of the midterms.

Take me through your view of the victory. What did you learn from it? What do you think Democrats should learn from it?

Hasan Piker (3:52)

So me personally, I've engaged in political commentary for the last 13 years, but I was never as hands-on with campaigns until this last cycle.

It actually started before the cycle. It started with Zoram Umdani in his primary. He was in a crowded field and people had asked me to go and work with him.

Ezra Klein (4:12)

I remember you asking about abundance at a lunch counter somewhere.

Hasan Piker (4:15)

Okay. So you keep bringing up abundance mindset. What do you think about the abundance mindset? You keep bringing it up.

SPEAKER_2 (4:21)

I did this to myself.

Hasan Piker (4:22)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (4:23)

One of the greatest obstacles we face is the existing inefficiencies, inadequacies of the public sector. If we want to get people to trust in the public sector, we have to deliver outcomes that they haven't seen.

Hasan Piker (4:36)

Yeah. I did. I did ask him about that.

He's turned out to be quite the abundist, as a matter of fact.

Ezra Klein (4:44)

We're in a grand era of synthesis over here.

Hasan Piker (4:46)

Yeah. Well, I think that's also the story of the victory that the Democrats had, but it was effective.