Bulwark Publisher Reveals ‘Next Level’ Harrassment From Hasan Piker Fans: ‘Designed to Intimidate Critics into Silence’

Screenshot via Twitch

Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the “Never Trump” publication The Bulwark, spoke out on Tuesday about the harassment she received after criticizing controversial streamer Hasan Piker.

Shannon Watts, a best-selling author and anti-gun violence advocate, shared some of the messages she gets from Piker supporters on social media and wrote, “Any male podcasters, pundits or politicians going to speak out against how Hasan Piker doxes and harasses women in our party or nah?”

Longwell replied to Watts and described her experience.

“I don’t know if they will, but I will,” Longwell replied, adding:

And I genuinely hate talking about it, because one never wants to give these pathetic keyboard warriors oxygen. But when I said on a pod a while back that an affiliation with Piker would hurt Democrats (fact check: true) the deluge of threats, lies, and attacks was genuinely nuts. And I’m pretty used to it after fighting with MAGA psychos all these years. But the Piker stuff is really next level and clearly designed to intimidate critics into silence. Which is why his calls for Dems to defend him will and should fall on deaf ears. Personally I think everyone should ignore him. He’s not an important figure in politics. But as long as Dem candidates campaign with him, he’ll be in the discourse. There’s a lesson in there for Dem candidates.

Back in April, Longwell and Bulwark host Tim Miller debated whether or not Piker should be taken seriously on the left and allowed to join Democratic Party campaigns. Longwell argued that Democrats should shun Piker, while Miller said he had no issue with them going on his show, arguing the left needed new energy.

“He’s a China, Russia sympathizer who hates women, hates Israel. He’s all the toxic things. I was listening to you last night, and I was like, my biggest problem with it, because I agree with you in some places, my biggest problem is I felt like you were soft-selling who this guy is. At one point, I think you called it impure thoughts or something,” Longwell told Miller during their debate in April.

Piker has since become a major lightning rod of controversy during this election cycle as he campaigned with Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and some of the winning DSA candidates in New York City. Piker is best known for his remark saying the U.S. “deserved” 9/11 and his recent trips to China and Cuba, where he praised their communist governments.

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