Hasan Piker may be a major name in online political media now, but when he got his start at The Young Turks, a network co-founded by his uncle, Cenk Uygur, he was a young, loud guy looking to make a splash in the online political discourse.Dave Rubin, who formerly worked on The Young Turks, recalls Piker as "a big dude" who was "really loud.""[Cenk] just put Hasan on air, even though virtually everyone there wanted to be on air," Rubin recalled in a conversation with Fox News Digital.
Rubin said that most of the staff at The Young Turks wanted to be on camera, but "once [Hasan] just showed up, he just got on camera.Cenk just gave him the keys to the kingdom and I guess he became some sort of personality since then."While Piker has continued to profess anti-capitalist and progressive views, while building an audience of loyal followers, Rubin later had a political epiphany and realigned himself with the right.
In a 2017 PragerU video, Rubin explained that the Left had gone from being "progressive to regressive," pointing to cancel culture and calls for censorship, among other things.HASAN PIKER IS BECOMING THE 'FACE OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT,' FORMER DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE WARNS"The Rubin Report" host Dave Rubin, who worked at The Young Turks, details Hasan Piker's evolution from online personality to real-life political player.(Screenshot: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic via Getty Images)Rubin said he was not surprised that Piker had gone from Twitch streamer to what he called the "brain trust" of Democratic Socialists.
"The Rubin Report" host explained that he saw Piker as filling a void for the Left as the Right saw a rise in online personalities.Rubin also pointed to the ways in which Piker differed from the typical left-leaning personalities, which he said have made the Twitch streamer resonate with young people."There weren't that many entertaining new people on the left online.
As I said, the right had this rich group of people that was growing and growing and going...