His name is Ro Khanna, and he’s a Democratic congressman representing California’s 17th district in Silicon Valley. Khanna will likely run for president as a longshot for the party nomination, and as a result he’s attempting to reach as many voters as possible. A big part of Khanna’s unofficial campaign is a seemingly ubiquitous media presence. He’ll appear everywhere from Fox News to CNN to HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. And he even sat down for an extended interview with podcaster Hasan Piker in April. “I would go [on Piker’s] show” again, proclaimed Khanna despite this kind of antisemitism, with the California lawmaker arguing that it’s important to try to reach new kinds of voters, including ones who are fans of Piker for one big obvious reason.
Relatively unknown until this year, Piker has become one of the most talked about political commentators as more Democrats have appeared on his show, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI), and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Piker has also campaigned with Sanders, AOC and current Democratic senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D). Khanna’s appearance on Piker’s program drew criticism, and rightly so. Piker has declared that America deserved 9/11, called Jews “inbreds”, laments the fall of the USSR as the worst day of the 20th Century, believes Hamas is “1,000 times better” than Israel, dismissed rapes that occurred during the Oct. 7 attacks as being inconsequential, has called for the assassination of Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), and features a large newspaper cover in his studio of one of the Twin Towers being struck by a hijacked place on 9/11.Piker is obviously antisemitic and toxic, yet, because of his popularity among younger liberal voters, Bernie, AOC, El-Sayed and Khanna and the rest are willing to look past that. “The lesson of the last election is we’ve got to be out there. We’ve got to engage. It’s a complex, messy, multiracial democracy. I will defend my views, but the people who are saying, ‘Don’t engage,’ will cost us future elections,” Khanna told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press in April. When asked if he would go back on Piker’s show, Khanna replied, “I would do it again.” 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)
