A Desperate Media Tells Hasan Piker: ‘Please Tone Things Down Until After the Election!’

 
Brad Slager
Opinion
Hasan Piker on the Clock It MS NOW Podcast

Hasan Piker on the Clock It MS NOW Podcast

When it comes to Hasan Piker, the problem is mounting, and he is not stopping. Now, we have the press straining to rein him in until the elections are over.

There has been a desire by some in the press to mitigate his negative impact by finding a comparison on the Right, saying Nick Fuentes is the Piker equivalent with conservatives.

But this does not add up. First off, Fuentes has been scorching President Trump and telling his minions to vote for Democrats. So much for comparisons.

The other problem with this false equivalency is that Fuentes hasn’t been welcomed into any GOP circles. You did not see him joining campaigns like Piker has done, nor has he hosted many Republicans on his show, unlike those who have sat with the so-called “streamer from California.”

And Fuentes has not been regularly platformed by media outlets. Meanwhile, Hasan Piker had two prominent media appearances just this week.

He sat in with Alex Thompson at Axios for what he described as his “most contentious interview.” In that talk, he surely had Democrats pinching the bridge of their noses as he declared America to be worse than Al Qaeda.

And with those verbal hand grenades that he regularly drops, Piker sat in with MS NOW for its Clock It podcast, hosted by Symone Sanders and Eugene Daniels.

Their approach was rather clear: They want Piker to tone things down, at least until after the election.

Sanders also had an issue with what Piker frequently says, pointing out that his comments have been “clipped out of context.” This is a laughable complaint, for a few reasons. Hearing her carping about the tactic that her own network uses on a constant basis is rather precious.

But suggesting that Piker is a victim of contorted presentation is simply laughable. The man not only says things that are inflammatory and toxic on the regular, but when he is challenged on those quotes and given a chance to smooth out the language, he instead boldly reiterates those very views.

This happened during his talk with Axios. Thompson asked Piker about a past quote where he called America the “top dog” in terms of terrorism. Instead of trying to massage his words today, he boldly responded with a “Yeah,” and then delivered his assessment that the U.S. is worse than al-Qaeda. There is no way to suggest he was misquoted or a victim of manipulative editing there. He fully owned his quotes.

That has echoes of the appearance he made with the Obama Bros. on Pod Save America this past spring. Jon Favreau tried to offer Piker the chance to back away from his avowed praise for Hamas. Instead, he sternly stood by his words, and reiterated his position.

Since then, Favreau has been pleading with Democrats to walk away from Piker. But as we witness, he is still being heard from, so he is being courted by the media to tone down his messaging, because it could backfire in key elections.

After that, things can return to his usual content. Just like many of the DSA candidates and other Democrats, they need to modulate their intentions right now. Then, once in office, they can enact their true intentions. So play nice, and stop with the bold policies. Then, after November, you all can run wild!

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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