Hasan Piker Derangement Syndrome (with Abdul El-Sayed)

There is one man in the United States that Democrats must defeat if we ever want to come together as a country again. According to Democratic Congress people like Cory Booker and Alyssa Slotkin, Brad Schneider and John Fetterman, as well as liberal media pundits like Jake Tapper. Controversial, if not outrageous, if not bigoted. He's a bigot, a danger to the soul of America, an outrageous man with a checkered past whose power in American politics must be curtailed immediately. He's not the president, you silly dum-dum. He's leftist Twitch streamer Hassan Piker, a man I could uncontroversially label the single most popular and relevant figure in the online left. Hassan Piker live streams for eight hours every single day and typically has between 20 and 40,000 concurrent viewers with a total Twitch following of more than 3 million. He's a fierce critic of Israel. Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a canary in the coal mine of fascism. It's one of the oldest bigotries that has caused those of the Jewish faith a tremendous amount of pain. From pogroms to the Holocaust, Jews have always been singled out by those in power as a scapegoat for instability and economic volatility people in power cause. A resilient, nascent anti-Semitism is a constant threat, especially as economic instability makes those in power seek out old targets. This is precisely the reason why I am terrified of the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. The conflation is dangerous. Valid criticisms against the state, especially as all of the violence is unfolding and everyone can see it, and tying it back to Judaism as a cynical ploy to stop all matter of conversation is truly terrifying. A fierce proponent of taxing billionaires. and the closest thing we have to the long sought after Joe Rogan of the left. Given Hassan's unprecedented ability to bring young men into the fold of progressive politics instead of fascism, Democrats should love him. They should go on his stream. They should invite him to things. But most of them are deathly afraid of Hassan Piker and refuse to speak to him. They're so afraid of him, in fact, that they've launched a smear campaign against him. And as a professional reviewer of smear campaigns myself, I must say, it is shocking to see someone who isn't a woman get treated like this by the media. Today, in this a bit fruity mini-sode of first, let me know if you like these, let me know if you want more of them. I want to explore the Democratic establishment's war on Hassan Piker, what it's really about, and what they're leaving on the table by waging it. To do that, I am so thrilled to be joined by Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for US Senate from the great state of Michigan who controversially made a campaign stop this week alongside Hassan Piker, and who was admonished for it by many in the Democratic establishment, but it didn't stop him. Hassan Piker has recently become an issue in Michigan. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, one of the three candidates and a former CNN commentator, announced that Piker will join him for two rallies in April. Now to the Michigan Senate race. A Democratic candidate is forging a controversial alliance with a left-wing streamer who has defended Hamas terrorists. Abu El-Sayed campaigned yesterday with 34-year-old Hassan Piker. Abu El-Sayed, Abu- Abdul El-Sayed, welcome to the show. Matt, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. How was last night? You appeared alongside Hassan Piker. I mean, I don't know, like, did he eat you? Like, was everything okay? You know, you'd have thought with the Twitter controversy over the last two weeks while our madman president was fighting an illegal, unjustifiable war, that this was the most important question of the century. And no, he did not eat me. He did not eat Representative Summer Lee, who was with us as well. And instead, what we did was we came together to talk about what it means to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for all, stand up against illegal wars, abolish ICE, and have a conversation about what it takes to bring people together around that message. And it turns out that when you're in a position where you're actually go and talk to people, you're willing to persuade them on what you believe, you can win elections. You know, everybody paid attention to our campaigning with Hassan. I started my day yesterday on Fox and Friends, where, look, there are a lot of things me and the Fox and Friends hosts are going to disagree on. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to go and have a conversation with some lovely boomers who have been duped by the MAGA movement into thinking that somehow this president wasn't going to start another war to enrich himself and his friends. So, you know, I'm going to go everywhere and talk to you. I'm going to go everywhere and talk to everybody because that's how you campaign in the year of our Lord of 2026. Yeah, it also looked like the lines to get in were extremely long. So I don't know. I guess the college students just didn't hear Jake Tapper's condemnations of Hassan Piker. You know, it turns out like tutting people about who they should not listen to is the best single way to make sure they listen to that person. Talk about it. In gay world, we call that the Streisand effect. Abdul, just for appearing alongside Hassan Piker, your detractors have spent the last few weeks smearing you. As all sorts of things by proxy, your opponent in the Michigan Senate race, Mallory McMorrow, she likened Hassan Piker to the far right neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. She's not alone in that comparison. Could you characterize these smears and explain where they're actually coming from? Because, you know, as like a Jewish person who respects Hassan for his principles and deeply rejects Nick Fuentes, it just feels so dishonest. And I think it's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, frankly, offensive. Yeah, I can't answer to why somebody says what they say, but I can try my best to assess the context in which they say it. You know, what's ironic to me is that the last one of us who actually campaigned with Hassan was Senator McMorrow at the 2024 DNC when they were both there to campaign for then for Vice President Kamala Harris. And you didn't get this clap back from the likes of Third Way, from the likes of the ADL, from the likes of AIPAC when Hassan was invited to the DNC. But when he decided to come and campaign for me, there was a whole different clap back. And I'll leave it to your very smart, very thoughtful audience to try and figure out why maybe it has something to do with the similarities that he and I share. Now, the reality of it is the reason I stand against antisemitism, the reason I categorically oppose any attempt to smear Judaism or the Jewish people, is because I love people. And I believe it shouldn't matter how you pray. As somebody who is of Muslim faith, I believe that you deserve equal rights to peace, dignity, self-determination, equal rights to be venerated and appreciated for who you are. It's also the reason I oppose Israel's actions. I oppose genocide. I oppose AIPAC trying to tie our foreign policy interests to the interests of a foreign government. I oppose sending three plus billion dollars a year to subsidize a foreign military. That is Israel, but that's not Israel. That's also Egypt. That's also Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Pakistan, all countries who receive tax dollars that you and I pay to provide for our schools here and our healthcare here. I oppose all of those things because I love people. It goes back to the same set of principles. So don't tell me that you stand against antisemitism and believe in equality when you cannot oppose a genocide being perpetrated by our tax dollars. Those two things are one in the same. Now, there are a lot of folks who want to stretch the meaning of antisemitism to include righteous opposition against the actions of a foreign government. I will never be okay with that because my principles are fundamentally about justice. They're fundamentally about a love of people. And so look, you know, people are trying to make this into some sort of tribal thing, but I was raised by my father, who's an Egyptian immigrant, my stepmom, Jackie, who's a daughter of the American revolution. I've never fit comfortably into any tribe. The tribe I'm from is the tribe of Michigan. And here in Michigan, we want our tax dollars to be funding healthcare in Michigan, in schools in Michigan, to be funding the ability for folks to live a dignified life in Michigan. And as the future Senator from Michigan, that's going to be my focus. So when I watch as folks in DC bend to the power of a super PAC funded by MAGA billionaire dollars in the form of APAC, telling us that the best use of Michigan tax dollars are somewhere else, I'm going to call bullshit and I'll call bullshit every time. And Hassan has been calling bullshit too. And people are trying to then say, well, that's because of some sort of animus. No, it's because we love people. We love Jewish people. We love Palestinian people. We love all people. And it's a responsibility to live a dignified life in Michigan. It's a responsibility to stand up and fight against them. So, you know, I'm going to reject the smear. And at the end of the day, what somebody else does in their campaign is really not of my concern. I'm more focused on defending the people in the state of Michigan rather than defending myself. Come on, principled messaging. I mean, look, as someone who lives in New York and who just saw very similar conversations play out over the entirety of the New York City mayoral campaign with Saran Mamdani, it is interesting to me how these public figures, whether or not they're even running for office, which Hassan Piker is not. So it's interesting that we all have to come together to condemn a Twitch streamer. But regardless, you see these public figures turned into symbols and sort of proxy wars for people's position on Israel by these bad faith actors. And that's, you know, what's so interesting to me is because Hassan Piker in this case, the reason they call him anti-Semitic, Hassan Piker's not anti-Semitic. He's an anti-Zionist. Which I am, which, you know, Saran Mamdani is, which many of us are. And for good reason, look what Israel is doing to Palestine, to the world. that of course gets conflated and they get called anti-Semitic. I'll tell you this, Matt, you know, it's sad to me when we lack the courage as a society to speak basic foundational truths that are the kind of truths that they write children's books about. You know, like these things are not that hard. No one group of people has a monopoly on pain. No one group of people gets to be better than any other group of people. All people deserve equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination. Those are not that hard to say. But when you've got the likes of the ADL, you've got the likes of Third Way, all trying to ram down our throats, something we all know at the pit of our core is just unfair and untrue. At the end of the day, a question to me is, where do you stand? And too often, we've watched as democratic politicians who should know better are now bending over backwards to justify public policies that they know are inconsistent with their own beliefs. And I'll just tell you this, like my second ever presidential election was for Barack Hussein Obama. I was so proud to vote for him. It was the first time I ever saw myself in a politician at all. I mean, you know, his dad immigrated from Africa. My dad immigrated from a different part of Africa. He had mixed parents. I was raised by mixed parents. You know, he has got a funny name. I decidedly not tall and relatively thick. But beyond that, like I saw myself in somebody for the first time. And the best thing he did was he stood up against a stupid war that everybody understood was ridiculous. And he was able to explain it in very simple language. I don't know what happened in the next 18 years when our party became the party of war again. And I'm just trying to say that if we're about our principles, let's be about our principles anywhere and everywhere. Because if there are exceptions, then at the end of the day, our foundational belief in equality, is not being met. And I just think that that is what people will judge you on. Everyday folk want to know that you care about their issues, and that you understand what they're facing. And if you're more interested in what's happening in somewhere abroad, and you are willing to send their taxpayer dollars somewhere else to destroy someone else's life, money that could be spent to improve our own, they're going to fault you for it. So don't be surprised when we don't win elections, because we are hypocritical on our own values. And I want Democrats to win. And I want us to win because I want us to be clear about what we believe. It's not enough to be against Donald Trump. Obviously, the man is an egotistical, egomaniacal, now genocidal maniac who doesn't have the basic cognitive capacity that is deserving of the job. And at the same time, it's not enough to just point to him and be like, oh, well, he sucks. Clearly he sucks. So why are you better? You got to be fighting for something, not just against something. Well, and when we talk about this war on Hassan Piker, this war on you, this war on Zoran Mamdani, by the way, it's very interesting that the people these sort of centrist mainstream corporate Democrats pick the biggest fights with all happen to be Muslim. But I digress. That war is being waged oftentimes not by Republicans, not by the right. Of course, they're always going to, you know, bitch and moan about everything that we do over here. But it is coming from the people that should be our bedfellows. So on the same day, Israel passed an ethnically segregated death penalty last week, two weeks ago, that only applies to Palestinians in what's been called the very definition of apartheid. CNN's Jake Tapper, who I will never shut up about, hosted an eight minute segment litigating the ethics of welcoming Hassan Piker into the Democratic Party. Now, I know that eight minutes doesn't sound like much for listeners of this podcast where brevity is never my strength. But when you're doing an hour long national news show a war, it's a pretty shocking amount of time to devote to a Twitch streamer. Jake hosted Jonah Platt, the less famous and talented son of multimillionaire producer Mark Platt, known best for his ongoing campaign against Miss Rachel. I pulled all 683 of Miss Rachel's Instagram posts from October 7th, 2023 through March 16th, 2026. And what those posts reveal is a story not fit for anti-Semitic. If you're already on Team Rachel or just not paying attention, you might not see anything wrong with that sentence. And perhaps her most explicitly implicit post, she describes, quote, good people as those who want kids not to be killed or lose limbs. Jonah smeared Hassan as anti-Semitic, which of course is what Jake Tapper invited him to do. What Piker does that a lot of people of his ilk do, these are the tropes they use. And then he'll use the exact same tropes and just sub-Jew-French. He would never say Jews control the media, but Israel controls the media. And, you know, the Jews didn't pull us into the war with Iran and control the American government, but Israel does. Is it normal for the media apparatus of the Democratic establishment to be fighting this hard against someone, Hassan Piker, who represents a huge portion of their potential voters? I mean, it leaves me wondering, truly, like, if these people want to win. I'll tell you this. If I've got to choose between being on the side of Jonah Platt or Ms. Rachel, I'm picking Ms. Rachel. And I think most people are. Hell yeah. If you're trying to fight a fight against, like, a woman who's universally beloved by children under three who haven't been taught that some people are worthy of hating and others are not, then at the end of the day, you're probably on the wrong side of history. And I'm going to be on Ms. Rachel's side of history forever. I just, look, I've known Jake for a long time. We worked together at CNN. I think Jake knows better, but. You have to ask yourself two big questions. Why the ideological push? And then what is it about the money and the movement of money? You know, folks like CNN, right, the entire media apparatus, they're losing their hold on the public conversation. And people like Hassan Piker are an existential threat to their business model. Because for a long time, you had, what, four or five options to get your news. And the people they platformed were the people who were going to be heard. And the people they shunned were the people they weren't. And then you have creators. Like you, like Hassan, like Joe Rogan, right, who are creating platforms where other alternative views can be heard. Some of them great, some of them awful. But as a business model, it means that eyeballs and eardrums are moving away from the likes of a CNN and moving toward the likes of a Matt Bernstein and a Hassan Piker. And they see that as existential. But the problem is, rather than adjust and start to create a more open perspective and a more open dialogue, you've watched as corporate movement has changed. And I think that's a big problem. And I think that's one of the reasons why corporate media has just chosen to double down. Why? Well, think about where the money goes to corporate media. They monetize eyeballs and eardrums by running ads for big pharma to sell you stuff. Like that's how the business model works. So you just kind of have to follow the money. And I'm an anti-corporatist. I have been for a very long time, right? I believe that small business is the keystone of our economy. And I fight against big corporations. And everybody kind of knows that. So for them, it's just a matter of where the money is. And too often in these kinds of newsrooms, there is a, you know, there's a lot of people who are like, oh, I don't know, that gets towed. And too often it's been the same old people with the same old perspectives who've assumed that they have a hold on our eardrums, that they can decide who we hear and who we don't. And then they double down, bring on people like Jonah Platt, whose whole thing is to smear people like Ms. Rachel. So at the end of the day, unfortunately, I don't think they really want to win. I think they want to make money. And I think by trying to point to these kinds of new media creators and talk about why somehow they're not worthy of being listened to, whatever they think, this is about trying to hold on to the money making machine that they've had for a very long time. And clearly it's not working because more people are listening to folks like you to get a different perspective. And they're understanding that at the end of the day, you can take whatever you want out of context for a guy who's been streaming eight hours a day, every day for 13 years. But there are enough people who are paying attention to be like, you took this out of context. And all that shows is that your whole approach here is indicting of the fact that your smear campaigns haven't been working. Should not be working and are not consistent with the truth, which forces us to ask whether or not any of the stuff that you produce is actually worthy of the truth. And you know what, when it comes to those like Hassan Piker comments that, you know, are taken out of context and, you know, they love to make a big stink about like, we need to condemn Hassan Piker because Hassan Piker said that America deserved 9-11. And here's what Piker said about the horrors of September 11th, 2001. Hassan Piker's past and present is checkered with controversy, controversial, if not outrageous, if not bigoted state comments like this one. America deserved 9-11, dude. F**k it. I'm saying it. We f**king totally put it on ourselves, dude. Holy shit. Will you speak to what he said about 9-11 and October the 7th? Democrats say he's a dangerous anti-Semite. He's also declared America, quote, deserved 9-11. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, my God, you have many of my parties, they're proud to do events with like that Hassan Piker. Now, this is the individual that just recently said that America deserved 9-11. Piker did later call that comment inappropriate and said he didn't mean Americans deserved to die. Any principled anti-Zionist, any person who is principled in like, we need to tax billionaires to fund social services, knows that their issue with Hassan Piker is not that he said one time in one of his eight hour streams, which he's done every day for years and years and years. America deserved 9-11. It's not about that. It's not about that. Look who we have in office right now. now across the political spectrum, people who have done heinous things, not just said heinous things, people who have done heinous things to women, to children. And yet there's so much more of a commotion about this one throwaway comment that Hassan Piker made years. And so it's not about that. It is about the fact that he is anti-billionaire and anti-Israel. And I wish, you know, I wish we could just be more honest about what we're actually attacking here. Again, after having just done this with the Zoran Mamdani campaign, where I had to explain to like, you know, for example, like my normie family, who's not in like the media every day, like this consuming, consuming, consuming politics all the time, where they just kind of get the vague contours of like, wait, is Zoran Mamdani anti-Semitic? I heard that. And then you have to explain, well, no, this is actually anti-Semitic. And then you have to explain, well, no, this is actually just about crushing the left. You know, when you've lost the argument, you make character assassinations. Right. And so I know we've already won the argument, you know, the statistics show it. And so instead it's, they reach for these easy to pick up character assassinations. You know, my Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, here's a guy who spent his time in Congress, literally kicking off the opioid epidemic. And then he retired from Congress, to a $14 million payout to be a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. And his whole thing is, well, Abdul's campaigning with Hassan Piker. I'm like, bro, like you're, you're trying to beat me on guilt by association. You begged, right? You, you essentially would have, would have given up one of your testicles for an endorsement from Donald Trump. A guy who talked about grabbing people by their nether regions. And you're talking to me about who I'm campaigning with. You're talking to me about who I'm campaigning with. That killed millions of people. I'm so sorry, but like, that's not an argument and you're going to lose. And you're going to lose because you look like a washed up used car salesman who sold people opioids, took a $14 million payout, literally made money on an epidemic that has ended up killing millions of people. Right. And you want to, you want to comment on morality? Yeah. When you lose the argument, right? You go for character assassination. They've lost the argument. So it's a winning argument. At the end of the day, nobody wants to live in an America where corporations get to dictate your future, get to offshore automate your job. And nobody says anything about it because they bought off the politicians who are supposed to do something about it. Nobody wants to live in an America where you've got corporations who get to raise the prices on the pharmaceuticals you need to survive. We don't want to live in the kind of circumstance where we cannot see a doctor when we get sick. I wanted to live in an America where everybody is guaranteed the healthcare they need and deserve, where you can't see a doctor you can dream of owning a home or you send your kid to a dignified school. Like these are not hard things. So we're going to keep making that argument. They can keep trying to argue about what a Twitch streamer said out of context. And I'm looking forward to winning that argument every single day because you know what? That means that we had the opportunity to win a future. Like, like I told you, I'm not here to defend myself at the end of the day. I really am not. I am here to make sure that our public policy finally works for the 10 million good people here in the state of Michigan who deserve a lot better than they've been getting by the likes of a Mike Rogers, by the likes of a, of an establishment that tells them that the best way forward is to siphon off yet more and more of their hard earned money into taxes that go to fight foreign wars or worse, go and line the pockets of an insurance CEO. Something that I find particularly infuriating, frankly, is that we have listened for the last several years as Democrats and their consultants and mouthpieces in liberal media have spoken about the need for a bigger tent. We keep hearing this big tent, big tent, big tent. to say welcome more people with differing views into the party for the sake of accruing more voting power. Kamala Harris in 2024 famously campaigned with Republican war hawk Liz Cheney. You know, this is I think one of the reasons why in this election I actually have the endorsement of 200 Republicans who have formally worked with President Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain, including the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congress member Liz Cheney. And promised to put a Republican on her cabinet if she won, which she didn't. Will you appoint a Republican to your cabinet? Yes, I would. Which also at the time had me wondering like, okay, well, who do I vote for if I don't want any Republicans in the cabinet? But I digress. Tom Suozzi of New York said we need to make space in the party for people who are anti-trans, liberal columnist Ezra Klein advocated for anti-choice Democrats, anti-abortion Democrats. So these Democrats are very happy to entertain positions to the right of their own. But when it comes to widening the tent left, we're immediately shut down. We are smeared. We are counted out. Many on the left, and I just want to speak for many of my own listeners of this show, nobody even wants their vote. There's a couple of things. Number one, all the folks that you mentioned spend way too much time talking to Washington DC insiders. What DC does is they pull out their telescope and they look through it like, oh, those people over there that we never actually stepped foot into their state, here's how they think. And I'm like, I'm sorry, but stop stereotyping the incredibly diverse, incredibly thoughtful people of my state, because I've been to 90 different cities now. I've done 300 public events. And even people who would call themselves independent, they don't sit in the middle of a left-right spectrum. Instead, they've got a diversity of different opinions about different issues. And the thing that they look for more than anything else is not where do you sit on a made up left-right spectrum that makes it easy for people in Washington DC to try and shorthand our politics. Instead, they're asking, are you real? Are you really about the things that you say you're about? Even if I disagree with you. I had a gentleman come up to me and he argued that I didn't believe in the second amendment, despite the fact that I do, I just have read the second amendment. And the second amendment is about protecting yourself from the government. And at the end of the day, you know, this notion of any gun for anyone, anytime, anywhere is not what the second amendment says. And he and I in the middle of a town hall had an argument about it. And he comes up to me afterwards with a hundred dollar check and he says, hey, I'm voting for you. I was like, I'm sorry, what? He's like, I'm voting for you. I was like, you and I clearly disagree. He's like, no, we disagree on one issue. But if you're willing to tell me where you stand, you're willing to argue with me. You're not telling me what you think I want to hear, but you're telling me where you stand. That means that in those rooms in DC, when they push you, you're not gonna get pushed around because you believe in things and that's why you're doing it. And that's the part that DC never sees. So when we talk about what wins, let's think about authenticity because say what you will about Donald Trump, the man's authentic self is like a super ego that exists in a body. And so whenever he speaks, it looks like he's being authentic to what he believes because nobody in their right mind would ever say the shit that he says. And if perfectly inoffensive was what won elections, then why the hell did Donald Trump get elected twice? So how about we just say what we believe? And the thing about it is I'm not new to this. I ran back in 2018. I had a lovely old lady at church come up to me after a Sunday sermon. She said, you know, you keep saying the same things. I was like, man, I thought that was a good thing. She's like, no, you keep saying the same stuff. You got to come up with some new material. I was like, look, when we have some new problems, I'll talk about new problems. And there are some new problems. I talk about AI. That was not a thing when I ran last time, but at least, you know, where I stand because when we ran in 2018, I was the only Democrat not taking corporate money then still not taking it. Now I was talking about Medicare for all. Then I'm talking about Medicare for all. Now I was talking about what it looks like to build an economy for small businesses then. And I'll be talking about it. Now I'll be talking about in the future, you know, where I stand. And my job is just to show you who I am. And if you like who I am and you like what I stand for and you think it would actually make your life better, vote for me. And if you don't, don't, but at the end of the day, at least, you know where I stand and I stand on principle 10 toes down. I'm not getting pushed around by some big corporation or some super PAC trying to tell me that the most important thing that we can do in the United States is support Israel. I don't get pushed around. We don't back down. And I think, I think people are looking for that. And that's what DC seems to be missing. Yeah. How dare you have principles you people discuss? For me, how dare much of the anti Hassan Piker campaign is the product of third way, which people on this podcast might not be familiar with, but it's a billionaire funded centrist think tank. That's very open about its mission to crush the progressive wing of the democratic party. Third way opposes abolishing ice, which 77% of Democrats support democratic voters. That is they oppose Medicare for all, which 77% of democratic voters support good on the 77%, right? So in theory, it shouldn't matter what third way thinks, except that third way has something the rest of us don't money. Third way, whose co-founder Matt Bennett has also compared Hassan Piker to Nick Fuentes plans to spend 30 to $50 million on crushing the left flank of the party leading up to 2028, ensuring that only quote unquote moderates can survive because that works so well for Kamala Harris and for Joe and for Hillary. One more time, boys don't give up yet. But Abdul, the vast majority of democratic voters support policies like abolishing ice, like ending funding for Israel's genocide, like taxing billionaires. And it increasingly feels like our leaders in power don't care what we want. They are willing to smear representatives of the majority like Hassan Piker in order to preserve the status quo for billionaires, corporate corporations, AIPAC, the list goes on. And so this feeling that I've been stuck with, it just doesn't feel like a representative democracy, where these broadly popular positions and people who hold them are like, who do we vote for if we want our views reflected? We have to understand what Third Way and AIPAC really are. These are democracy suppression machines. Their job is to funnel huge amounts of money from the richest people in society to insulate politicians who agree with them from the likes of the public who does not agree with them. Third Way exists to launder old ideas that have destroyed people's lives back into our politics yet again, using the money of the corporations who benefit from those old ideas. AIPAC, same thing, MAGA billionaire dollars funneling into our politics. They don't run ads about Israel. They don't just come out and say it. They run ads about any which, thing trying to smear anybody who is not sufficiently allegiant to the state of Israel and what the state of Israel leadership wants. And so we've just got to call it what it is. And we've got to recognize that they are beatable because at the end of the day, money doesn't vote, people vote. And so we've got to be willing to put ourselves where they put their money, right? And that means we sign up to volunteer. That means we're knocking doors. That means we're having uncomfortable conversations with folks about who we are and who we want to be. It's that people power that actually does that. And yes, right. I would rather be in a situation where I'm taking five bucks from a hundred thousand people than taking a hundred thousand dollars from five people. And they think that system of politics works. I think it's quite the opposite. So if you want to be able to beat them, help us beat them, right? Let, let me go after them. I'll take all of their shots, but at the end of the day, my job is not to protect me. My job is to make sure that yet another generation doesn't get broken over the policies that they're trying to force down our throats. Policies that tell us that the whims and interests of big corporations and their shareholders matter more than the lives we get to lead. Policies that tell us that corporations should own your home instead of you being able to own a home. Corporations telling us that the $18 million earned by an insurance CEO was earned justifiably and that we cannot ever imagine healthcare without those big corporate insurance companies. If you oppose those things, help us lead that forward. Be a part of campaigns like mine, campaigns across the country that are stepping up, stepping out, taking them on and beating them. Politico asked 14 potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates if they would appear on Hassan Piker's live stream. Again, very funny that this is becoming a litmus test. He is a Twitch streamer. Only three said that they would. Among those who said they would not appear alongside Hassan were Cory Booker. Do you know who Cory Booker has appeared alongside multiple times? Hmm. Who? Benjamin Netanyahu. Yeah. Yeah, that part. He won't even say he's a war criminal. How many people you got to kill? How many kids you got to kill to be called a war criminal? You know, I guess millions of dollars, eight-pack dollars buys your voice box. And another who refused to appear alongside Hassan was Alyssa Slotkin, who is a senator who's voted multiple times to send billions of dollars to aid Israel's genocide. And then Alyssa Slotkin just last week did happily go on Bill Maher's show. Bill Maher, who has called Islam, quote, the motherlode of bad ideas, who is currently cheering on Donald Trump's illegal war in Iran, saying that he knows he should be against it, but he isn't. He said his bigotry towards Muslims can't be racist because people of all races can be Muslim. The list goes on. And none of this seems to bother Alyssa Slotkin, I guess, as much as Hassan Piker being against the genocide of Palestinians. I just want to ask, like, as a Muslim man, I'd imagine you have feelings about the unique past that so much of this country, including this wing of the Democratic Party, makes for Islamophobia. I do. And at the end of the day, my job here is not to defend myself. You know, my job here is to defend the good people of Michigan who've had a bum deal. You know, I know what I'm in for. I know that I pray the wrong way for a lot of people. I've got the wrong skin color. My family comes from the wrong place. I got the wrong name. And at the end of the day, I've watched a lot of people suffer a lot worse. You know, I've been really privileged and blessed in my life. So, you know, I don't begrudge politicians for going anywhere and talking to anybody. But I do begrudge a double standard that says you can talk to some folks, but not others. So look, Bill Maher wants to have me on a show. I'll go on a show, right? I'll prove to him what it looks like to get completely owned by a Muslim guy. Yeah. So I'm happy to go everywhere and talk to everyone. I've been consistent about that. But please don't, don't play this platform, game where you platform police or you engage in this cancel culture and then pretend that you're not right. Because at the end of the day, if you are somebody who wants to go everywhere, you want to carry your, your positions and to have conversations with folks, you think you can persuade. Great. That's, that's what good politics is about. That's exactly what I'm doing, which is why I would appear with Hassan Piker. I would go on Fox and friends. I'd sit down with Joe Rogan and I'd go on Bill Maher, despite the terrible things he said about people who pray like I do, but don't then tell me what you can do or you can't do and try to have it both ways. Before we go, Abdul, I'd be remiss to ignore a growing elephant in the room, which is that I keep getting messages from people who listen to my show, wondering why they're agreeing with people like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, when those people forcefully and unequivocally call for the end of foreign wars and genocides for our tax dollars to fund schools and not bombs. And, you know, I always try to explain to those people that, those pundits aren't coming from an ethic of equality, that they're still Christian nationalists, that much of their criticism of Israel is folded into anti-Semitic worldviews. And yet when groups like AIPAC and Third Way and liberal mainstream media outlets crush any criticism of Israel within the Democratic Party, the way that we've seen them do to Hassan and you by proxy, it feels like the party has allowed itself to be completely outflanked on this issue. And frankly, it's embarrassing. Like, I don't, I don't want to see my friends retweeting Tucker Carlson. This brings me no joy. So how do you see Democrats like actually becoming leaders on these issues again? Basic human morality. Go back to your principles, you know, go back to your principles. And I think your point is really important that just because they got to a conclusion that you agree with doesn't necessarily mean they got there the right way or agree with your principles. You know, what you should be looking for is somebody who clearly thinks that they're going to win the election. And I think that's the key. states their principles and then applies their principles everywhere. The mistake too many Democrats make is that they state their principles and then their conclusions don't actually align with their principles. And then you've got folks like the others you mentioned whose outcomes seem consistent, but the principles are off. You want alignment between what you say you believe and then what that means, regardless of the circumstance that you're applying it to. That is the kind of clarity that we all need. And I'm calling on Democrats to stop bending to the winds of the likes of an AIPAC. or a corporate PAC when they tell you what you can and cannot believe, but instead state your principles and then follow those principles where they lead. Have the courage of your convictions to apply them openly and honestly. And what you'll find is that people will respect that. I think too many people want to be liked. Don't try to be liked. Your job at the end of the day is to be respected for what you believe. And at the end of the day, there are going to be some people who disagree with you and that's okay. And I will just tell folks, we play this game where there's good and evil. And at the end of the day, there are going to be things you agree with, but at the end with people you deeply disagree with, and there are going to be things you disagree with, with people you generally agree with. That's just human nature, right? All of us have had parents and we have significant others and we have siblings and we have children. And generally you agree with those people on a lot of things. And then every once in a while they come with an opinion like, wait, what? How does that apply? So I just think we've got to stop being so precious about this sorting that social media and our system of politics tries to force us into. And I'm asking to keep an open mind, and to hold a very clear standard. Ask people what their principles are, and then make sure that they apply their principles linearly in every situation. That's what I try to do in my politics and where I'm inconsistent. Call me out. Let's have a conversation about it. Let me explain to you why I believe what I believe, but hold me accountable to that. What are my principles and how do they apply? Abdul El-Sayed, thank you for your time. I usually ask guests on this podcast where to support their work. Where should they support your Patreon? In this case, you're running for the U.S. Senate. Where can people support your campaign? Abdulforsenate.com. If you haven't signed up to volunteer, please do. If you can chip us off five bucks, 10 bucks, it goes a long way. I'm the only candidate in my race who's never taken a dime of corporate money. AIPAC has called me the most dangerous opponent to the U.S.-Israel relationship. Hell yeah. I wish they made a t-shirt. I'd wear it with pride. I hope that folks will support us. Follow us on social media. Share our stuff. Tell your friends. Have conversations. If you're in Michigan, have those conversations with your friends and loved ones, with your parents about why it is that you support us and what we can do to win. We got four months left in this race for the primary and then another three months after that. Then from there, six years to try and make some change. At the end of the day, it's not just about winning a U.S. Senate seat. People talk about electability, but then the question for me is elected to do what? Make sure that you know what the folks who will hold that seat are going to do with that seat. It's not enough to just have a color or a letter. It's about what you're fighting for. My hope is that I can go and use that seat every single day to advance in America where corporations no longer dictate our future, where we're putting money back in pockets and we're passing Medicare for all. And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in for this episode, a mini-sode, a first. on a bit fruity I know if you come here every other week for my two hour long deep dive episodes probably didn't expect to hear from me on and off week but can't shut me up that easily these smear campaigns move fast and uh sometimes we just gotta move on them here at a bit fruity hq in all seriousness it is a real joy to at this point be able to leverage this platform not only to speak truth to power as I see it but also to help out the campaigns of future leaders that I and hopefully you really believe in so thank you so much to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for joining me on this episode today thank you for taking the time to tune in if you would like more of this show there is a brand new bonus episode on Israel's princess of propaganda Noah Tishby up now on Patreon that will be linked in the episode description Noah Tishby is a truly fascinating if exhausting figure Matt Lieb of the Bad Hasbara podcast and myself take a really good look at her for about two hours so if you'd like to tune in you can catch us on Patreon otherwise I will catch you next week and until then stay fruity