El-Sayed says Hasan Piker does not speak for his campaign amid comments about Jewish candidate

In response to comments made by online influencer Hasan Piker, a controversial left-wing streamer, in which he tied his criticisms of support for Israel by the American Jewish community to state Sen. Jeremy Moss of Bloomfield Township, Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”

Piker was a staunch supporter of El-Sayed in his primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), appearing with him at a pair of campus rallies in April and at a primary night party in Detroit. In the general election thus far, his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has repeatedly attacked El-Sayed by tying him to Piker’s past comments — even calling him El-Sayed’s “running mate” at the state Republican Party’s nominating convention on Saturday. 

“While politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we’re going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools, and healthcare,” El-Sayed said in a statement on Monday. “Because that’s what Michiganders keep asking about. It’s why I’m fighting to get money out of politics, money in your pocket, and Medicare for All.”

During a Twitch stream, Piker’s screen showed a social media post with a graphic and a photo of Moss while he said, “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews. I don’t know how people don’t recognize how dangerous this predicament is, how dangerous this is for Jews.”

Moss, who is Jewish, is the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, which was vacated by Stevens in her bid for U.S. Senate. Earlier in August, an audio clip that purported to be of Moss circulated on social media claiming he said the entire purpose of his campaign for the U.S. House is to ensure America continues to support Israel. Moss, in a post on the X social media platform, called the clip fake, stating that it uses “manipulated and unsourced audio.”

“It peddles in offensive tropes and lies – especially the lie of dual loyalty suggesting that Jews are never fully citizens of or loyal to their home countries,” he continued. 

Moss did not respond to a request for comment on Piker’s statements or El-Sayed’s response. This story will be updated when a response is received.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten — who was a strong supporter of Stevens in the primary and has yet to endorse El-Sayed following his primary win — also responded to Piker’s comments in a statement on social media, calling them “unacceptable.” 

“Piker is a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance. It’s dangerous for everyone,” Scholten said in a post on X. “We should all be calling out this disgusting rhetoric so it loses its grip on our politics once and for all. It has no place in Michigan, and no place in our country.”

While El-Sayed’s statement did not directly call Piker’s statements themselves antisemitic or condemn them specifically, he called antisemitism a “scourge.”

“I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence. This is particularly true for communities that have been intimidated for their beliefs in the past,” he said. “My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters.”

His statement also comes as El-Sayed has seemed to distance himself from Piker since the primary election.

Rogers, meanwhile, called Piker’s statements “absolutely disgusting” in a post on Sunday, saying that “If Abdul El-Sayed had any courage at all, he would call this out and disavow Hasan Piker once and for all.”

Rogers has come under similar criticism for his connection to last week’s Christian nationalist rally in Dearborn that featured anti-Muslim rhetoric and led to the arrest of nearly two dozen individuals. The event was organized in part by Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, a member of Rogers’ Faith Coalition Leadership Team. 

Rogers’ campaign declined to answer questions from Michigan Advance about whether he supported Sewell’s role in the Dearborn rally.