El-Sayed on Piker: Not interested ‘in having a conversation about streamers in California’

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday pushed back on questions about far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who he previously campaigned with.

“There are Jewish voters in your state who are concerned about your relationship with Piker. You have condemned antisemitism but not called out his rhetoric directly. Why not?” CBS News’s Weijia Jiang asked El-Sayed on “Face the Nation.”

“Weiija, with all due respect, this is the third time you’ve asked about a Twitch streamer in California. I’ve done four events in Michigan this week. You know what didn’t come up? Twitch streamers in California,” El-Sayed responded.

“You know what did come up? Grocery prices, the fact that people can’t see a doctor, the worry that they have about the quality of air and water. I’m not interested in having a conversation about streamers in California because they are not raising the prices of gas and groceries,” he added.

The Michigan Senate candidate is one of multiple insurgent progressive Democratic candidates who were able to lock down a spot in the general election in primaries this summer. He has received backing from fellow left-wing figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)

El-Sayed has also campaigned with Piker, a left-wing streamer with a history of controversial comments.

Late last month , El-Sayed said he had “no plans” to campaign with Piker in the wake of multiple Democratic lawmakers criticizing the streamer over his comments on American Jews supporting Israel.

Piker, a heavy critic of Israel and its actions in Gaza, recently said that while Jewish Americans do not automatically back the government of Israel, “Jewish institutions” are “teaching people the idea that Jews are monolithic.”

“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,” Piker said on a livestream.