The primary win by Abdul el-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race demonstrated that Democrats and their broadcast media allies can’t really identify a radical left-wing fringe anywhere.They ought to easily find the fringe with radical Twitch streamer and podcaster Hasan Piker, who el-Sayed campaigned with and refuses to condemn.Now that el-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in the general election, the networks are going to defend the Democrat against charges that he campaigned with Piker, who has proclaimed that America deserved 9/11 and that Chinese mass-murdering communist dictator Mao Zedong was "one of the great leaders of this world." A few weeks ago, Piker appeared as a speaker at a College Democrat meeting dressed in a Mao-style suit.
But don’t call him a communist!In a rare bit of straight reporting on el-Sayed, "NBC Nightly News" included this from reporter Shaquille Brewster on Wednesday, Aug.5: "He’s also been criticized for campaigning with controversial left-wing podcaster Hasan Piker, who said America deserved the 9/11 terror attacks.
El-Sayed said he disagrees, but would not disavow Piker’s views."HASAN PIKER UNLOADS ON 'ISLAMOPHOBIC PIECES OF S---' DEMOCRATS AS EL-SAYED FACES PARTY UNITY TESTMost reporting on el-Sayed was nebulous.The next morning, NBC’s Garrett Haake said Republicans are "painting him as an extremist," with a Trump quote: "The Communists want to take their ruinous and deadly ideology of misery and squalor to every state in America, but we’re not going to let them." This kind of vague quotation suggests Trump is making this "communist stuff" up.Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S.
Senate in Michigan, talks poolside with streamer Hasan Piker at a party for content creators supporting his campaign, Monday, Aug.3, 2026, in Detroit.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)ABC reporter Rachel Scott summarized: "The president trying to focus on el-Sayed, branding him as a communist.El-Sayed say...