Hasan Piker Defends Hamas Support As Pod Save America Host Tries to Get Him to Disavow It

Screenshot via YouTube

Pod Save America host Jon Favreau sat down with progressive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker on Sunday and, during a friendly interview, tried to get Piker to tamp down some of his more controversial statements.

Piker has grabbed headlines in recent weeks after he headlined a campaign rally for a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, sparking a debate about Piker’s role in the party. Piker has a long history of shock comments, everything from saying the U.S. “deserved” 9/11 to praising terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas – which Favreau tried to get Piker to water down.

“This is one from January, ‘Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler colonial apartheid state,’” Favreau said as he quoted Piker’s past statement.

“I stand by that,” insisted Piker.

“Well, so I will say this is the one that bothered me most when I first heard it. And I remember having a reaction to it when I first saw it in January because I think even if you believe what happened in Gaza is genocide and what’s happening in the West Bank is apartheid, those are different claims from Hamas is a thousand times better. Because Hamas is an organization that has massacred, raped, kidnapped civilians on October 7th,” Favreau replied, adding:

They’ve also been catastrophic for Palestinians by almost every measure. Governance, corruption, they made choices they knew would result in mass civilian deaths of their own people. So my question is when you say Hamas is a thousand times better, do you actually mean that or is that a rhetorical move or like a solidarity signal? Like what?

“I mean, it’s all of the above. I do mean it,” Piker insisted, refusing any of the offramps Favreau offered.

“I think it’s a rhetorical move because it frustrates a lot of people. I’ve also said I’m a harm reduction voter. I’m a lesser evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time because I’m looking at the situation as a paramilitary organization that has like a political party as well, a Politburo as well, that is entirely comprised not as an alien force, but of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point,” Piker said, concluding:

They’ve done a genocide at this point as well, but it started off with the Nakba and has only evolved, as technology has gotten better to become more heinous, and Gaza is this hermetically sealed area that many people correctly point to as the world’s largest open-air prison before October 7.”

Piker received a bevy of criticism for his take from across the political spectrum:

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