The dangerous rhetoric of Hasan Piker

In the aftermath of yet another assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, America cannot afford to ignore the left’s increasingly alarming calls for political violence against the right. This rhetoric is not coming from obscure quarters, either. Some of the most influential voices on the left and in the Democratic Party are gleefully turning up the heat by throwing gasoline on the fires of our political disagreements.

For example, earlier this month James Carville, the well-known Democratic campaign consultant for Bill and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, said the following about Trump on his podcast: “I do not want that man to die. I want to watch him suffer. And I can’t watch a dead person suffer.”

Not to be upstaged, disgraced and unfunny late-night host Jimmy Kimmel did a comedy sketch where he “previewed” the very White House Correspondents Dinner that was violently disrupted by an active shooter who attempted to assassinate the sitting president. In the sketch, Kimmel described Trump’s wife, Melania, as having the glow of “an expectant widow.” The dark irony is probably still lost on Kimmel and his unfortunate viewers, although pressure is mounting on ABC as the first lady put the comedian and his show on blast in a social media post.

But the current crown for stoking the flames of violent extremism on the left belongs to someone whose name you probably haven’t heard, unless you spend too much time on social media. He is a confidant of the socialist Muslim Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, friend of socialist Democrat Bernie Sanders, the nephew of popular leftist provocateur Cenk Uygur, political ally of Democrat progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and he was recently interviewed by Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau. Just last year, the New York Times ran its third puff-piece profiling him for its readers.

I’m speaking of Hasan Piker.

Piker takes the progressive socialist politics on the left to radical extremes. His greatest hits include shocking, inexcusable, inflammatory comments like, “America deserved 9/11.” In support of Hamas’s 2023 terrorist attack against Israel that resulted in 1,200 dead and 250 hostages taken back to Gaza, including women and children, he said, “It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7th. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”

Piker waxes eloquent against capitalism and landlords, demanding murder in the most graphic (and unprintable) terms. He repeatedly calls for murder and killing, using language that is so far over the top that it can’t be repeated. He openly calls for the killing of his political opponents. That includes this statement, referring to Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL): “If you cared about Medicare fraud, or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott.”

Piker is obviously deranged. But what are we to make of leftist politicians like Mamdani and Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and Omar who not only refuse to denounce him, but actively seek political association with him—knowing full well what he has said in public? And what are we to make of his growing influence and audience on the left? How many acts of political violence has he already incited, and how many more will we allow?

With another assassination attempt against the president of the United States in the news again, it’s time for Americans to wake up. Free speech is not an absolute right. Incitements to violence have no place in our public discourse, and it is inexcusable that the left continues to platform and partner with radicals like Hasan Piker. His radicalism is already incompatible with our constitutional order, and his violent rhetoric clearly represents a threat to our social compact and peace.