Hasan Piker claims Abdul El-Sayed requested his support for Michigan campaign amid criticism

<p>Twitch streamer Hasan Piker stated that Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed asked him to support his campaign during an interview on Friday, following backlash El-Sayed faced for appearing with Piker. Piker discussed the criticism he received from Democrats since joining El-Sayed on the campaign trail, asserting that the idea to campaign together originated with El-Sayed.</p><p>"He asked me to stump for him, and I had not considered that ever before," Piker said. "I'd never really delivered a speech like that before." Piker noted that he had previously engaged in political activities with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's campaign without facing significant backlash, unlike his involvement with El-Sayed.</p><p>Piker explained that after campaigning for El-Sayed, he faced criticism from establishment Democrats and think tanks, including Third Way. "I'll admit I didn't realize how much the media would think that this is different," he said. "I had no idea that in the mindset of, you know, people in D.C., in the mindset of like, establishment media, doing a rally with a politician was apparently far more consequential than flying out to Dearborn and, like, working out with him, doing profiles, fundraising for him. I didn't realize that it was a very different thing," Piker added.</p><p>He continued, "I did not realize that people would get so mad about it because, from my perspective, who cares if I'm doing a rally with a politician? I'm like, I've already had the guy on, like, a hundred times on the broadcast. You know, I've fundraised for him. I like him a lot. I have my disagreements with him, too, of course. But that was when the onslaught came in."</p><p>Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed's campaign for comment. El-Sayed has faced scrutiny for campaigning with Piker, who has a history of controversial statements, including remarks about the September 11 attacks. Recently, El-Sayed has attempted to distance himself from Piker after Piker suggested that Jewish Americans were "making antisemitism worse" by supporting Israel. El-Sayed has since referred to Piker as "a streamer from California" with no relevance to the race.</p><p>"I am not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California. And to folks who want to make this about a social media person in California, let’s not forget what actually matters in our politics, what our politics are really about," El-Sayed told reporters at the state Democratic Party Nominating Convention on Saturday.</p><p>He added, "I don’t ever want my comments to hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s important to me that people understand that I take seriously the pain of all communities in this state. But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. This is not a serious conversation."</p><p>In a comment to Fox News Digital, El-Sayed also apologized for his past comments made in response to an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March, where he remarked, "Hurt people, hurt people." He stated, "To anybody who feels like my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain."</p>