NOW PLAYING
A Michigan Democrat is drawing attention with her refusal to back Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over his campaigning with political commentator Hasan Piker and disgraced Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), in an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper, criticized El-Sayed, who is running for retiring Sen. Gary Peters’s (D-Mich.) seat against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). Scholten endorsed Stevens in the race in April 2025.
Scholten pointed to comments made by Piker about 9/11.
She said El-Sayed chose “to campaign with Hasan Piker, who said America deserved Sept. 11. Sure, he went on to disavow those comments, but I’m telling you, nobody on my team would ever, you know, come even close to making a comment like that.”
Piker, a left-wing Twitch streamer, apologized for the comments in 2019, calling them “inappropriate.”
“I should’ve used more precise and better use of the language there,” Piker said during an interview with fellow political commentator Cenk Uygur.
Scholten said she would give Piker “credit for disavowing it after the fact. But the reality is, he [El-Sayed] also didn’t have to choose to campaign with Hasan Piker.”
El-Sayed declined opportunities to disavow Piker’s views, referring to such opportunities as a “gotcha game.” He has also defended his appearance with Piker at Michigan State University while on the campaign trail.
“Abdul El-Sayed and Graham Platner campaigned together,” Scholten added.
El-Sayed and Platner never campaigned together but did “split send two fundraising emails,” David Weigel from Semafor reported on the social platform X.
Platner won the Maine Senate Democratic primary and was set to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). He dropped his bid when allegations from past partners surfaced, accusing him of sexual misconduct during their relationships.
Scholten remained critical of these associations and their effect on the Democratic Party.
“I think that condoning behavior like this from candidates like Abdul El-Sayed is taking us in a direction that we don’t want to go as a party. I don’t need $20 million to study why young men stopped voting for the Democratic Party. Look at the message that we’re sending to our veterans if we’re willing to embrace or even brush aside comments like that. I would never stand on a stage or be at a rally with someone like Hasan Piker because he chose to say comments like that,” she said.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Cenk Uygur Haley Stevens Hillary Scholten Susan CollinsCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore Campaign News
See All
Campaign Manchin launches effort to elect independent candidates to Congress by Finya Swai 46 minutes ago Campaign / 46 minutes ago 
