Summer Lee to appear with controversial streamer Hasan Piker at Michigan rallies
Piker has been accused of antisemitism
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who represents Squirrel Hill, is scheduled to appear alongside Twitch streamer Hasan Piker at Michigan State and the University of Michigan on April 7 at rallies for U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Piker, who has 3 million followers, has a history of antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric. He has justified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, said that Orthodox Jews are “inbred,” and called a Jewish person a “bloodthirsty pig dog.” In November 2024, U.S. Rep. Richie Torres of New York called out Piker for downplaying or denying “the significance of sexual violence by Hamas” during the Oct. 7 attacks.
Piker has falsely stated that Hamas does not use civilians as human shields, according to StopAntisemitism. He also has declared that America deserved 9/11.
Regarding Lee’s appearance alongside Piker at the rally for El-Sayed, the president of moderate think tank Third Way, Jonathan Cowan, told Politico: “Anyone eager to campaign with Hasan Piker is, at best, comfortable overlooking his antisemitic and anti-American extremism and, at worst, endorsing it.”
“It is morally repugnant and strategically self-defeating for Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed and Members of Congress like Summer Lee to cozy up to antisemitic extremists like Hasan Piker,” Cowan said.
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial Cowan co-authored with Third Way’s Lily Cohen, titled “Democrats Are Too Cozy With Hasan Piker,” urged Democrats to call out antisemitism in their own party as have some Republicans. PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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