Abdul El-Sayed Says He Disagrees With Hasan Piker on China, Rips ‘Game’ of Policing Past Statements

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended his campaigning with controversial progressive Hasan Piker by calling out the “game” of policing past statements and making others responsible.

El-Sayed spoke with CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe this week amid his race against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) for a Senate seat, and O’Keefe at one point grilled him on his relationship to Piker.

O’Keefe asked El-Sayed if campaigning with Piker was a “good idea.”

“Look, I want to reach out to his viewers,” El-Sayed said, noting there are issues he “disagrees” with Piker on.

He then listed out issues where he does agree with Piker, including universal healthcare and opposing foreign wars like the current Iran “situationship.”

El-Sayed at one point claimed there is a “double standard” in calling out his connection to Piker as the streamer was previously invited the Democratic National Convention, along with other influencers, when Vice President Kamala Harris was running against President Donald Trump.

“Why wouldn’t I, just like Vice President Harris did, seek to speak to his audience?” El-Sayed asked.

He also noted he went on Fox & Friends and “nobody seemed to be all that upset about that.”

When asked what issues he disagrees with Piker on, El-Sayed listed “issues related to China” and the “future of cars.”

Among Piker’s past controversial statements, he at one point declared he doesn’t have a “problem” with the terrorist group Hezbollah.

When O’Keefe mentioned this statement, Ep-Sayed added to the list of disagreements.

“Those are things he and I are going to disagree on,” he said.

Check out the full exchange below:

ED O’KEEFE: You know there’s one other guy that you’ve campaigned with that has raised eyebrows, Hasan Piker.

ABDUL EL-SAYED: His eyebrows went up. Did you guys see that?

O’KEEFE: As I said, raised eyebrows, I raised my eyebrows. Was campaigning with him a good idea?

EL-SAYED: Look, I want to reach out to his viewers. He has a three million-person platform and there are things that Hassan and I disagree with, if you watched any of our content together, and there are thing that he and I agree with on. The question of whether or not we should be guaranteeing people health care or sending our money abroad to drop bombs on other people, we agree. I think we should be providing healthcare here. On the question on taking on the fascism of the Trump administration, we agree we should probably take that on. On the question of building competent functional infrastructure in America, we agree. And so why wouldn’t I, just like Vice President Harris did, seek to speak to his audience? He was invited to campaign at the — or to be at — the Democratic Convention in 2024.

O’KEEFE: Along with dozens of other influencers like him.

EL-SAYED: Right. Just like I’ve talked to dozens of other influencers. I just think it’s interesting that there has now been a double standard around my campaigning with him that everybody sees as this big litmus test when nobody batted an eyelash to her having invited him to the DNC. So look, I’m going to go everywhere, talk to everyone. The same day that I campaigned with him, I also went on Fox & Friends. There’s a lot more I disagree with the hosts of Fox & Friends, and nobody seemed to be all that upset about that.

O’KEEFE: You gave me a list of things you agree with him on. Is there anything you disagree with him?

EL-SAYED: Yeah, certainly. Look, you know, on issues like related to China, the future of cars, we have disagreements. There’s things he said that I disagree with, but there’s also things he says that he disagrees with. There’s things that you said I disagree with, things that you say you probably disagree with. I just think this game where we sort of police people on the worst thing they said one time out of context to try to tell us who we cannot talk to is a great way to divide a party that really needs figure out how to build a bigger version of itself.

O’KEEFE: But when he says things like he didn’t have an issue with Hezbollah, that resonates more in this state than in many others.

EL-SAYED: Yeah, well, look, those are things that he and I are going to disagree on. But again, the idea that somehow I am going to hold myself accountable to the worst thing he said and then not reach out to his audience… So he said things he’s going to agree with. I’ve said things, he’s going to disagree with and vice versa. But that’s how public conversation works. We have a discussion. We think about the things that we agree on and the things we don’t. And then if democracy is supposed to work like we want it to work, it’s supposed to be a pathway by which we engage with different people to show them a pathway back into democratic politics. I think it’s worth asking ourselves, really, big picture, what is democracy for if not to create a peaceful way to resolve our disagreements? So if there are groups of people we’re just not going to talk to, ask yourself whether or not that’s good for democracy or bad for democracy. I just think it is probably better for us to be having those conversations. And I know when I engage with them that someday some enterprising journalist like you is going to come here and ask me about an out of context quote that he said and say, do you agree with this or disagree with it? And the bigger question is, do I agree that the three million people who listen to him ought to have a pathway into their politics? Do I agree that a smart politics, a winning politics for Democrats would be reaching out to them? I do. And so whether or not he and I agree on all the things he’s ever said is secondary to are there things we agree on and can we start engaging with folks so that they see a pathway back into democratic politics, back into voting, and back into a system where we’re supposed to be able to come together and make decisions about how we want to allocate scarce resources.

O’KEEFE: And you’re talking to us, you’ve talked to him, you talked to Fox, there’s no denying that you’ve —

El-SAYED: I go everywhere and I talk to everybody.

O’KEEFE: Exactly. And not every candidate does that, so I hear you on that part of it. But you can appreciate that there are some that are concerned about any Democrat spending time with someone like.

El-SAYED: You know, it’s just things, like, that people seem inordinately concerned about, the few things he said and less concerned about the fact that that our government is in maybe, maybe-not-like situationship of war and in the same period we were in the early stages of the situationship war and every single news channel wanted to spend at least 10 minutes of an hour in a conversation about that. That’s why people don’t take it seriously because at the end of the day, there’s a matter of scale And there’s a matter of consequence and when the president of the United States says crazy, bat…stuff every day, and then everybody wants to be like, well, he said this one thing, do you agree with that? If we want to be serious, let’s be serious. But this is not serious.

Watch above via CBS News.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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