Dear AOC, Hasan Piker Is Not Joe Rogan - National Logistics Post

During an appearance on ABC This Week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y. was asked whether Hasan Piker, who said that “America deserved 9/11,” should have a role in the progressive movement going forward. AOC dodged the question by claiming the criticism of Piker was coming from “consultants” and equating Piker to Joe Rogan.

“Many of the same consultants that are ringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we need to go on Joe Rogan and we need to be not so willing to engage in cancel culture,” AOC told Jonathan Karl.

The far-Left is ascendant in the Democrat Party, and many of them are further-Left than AOC.

“I think that the flip-flopping on this is a tactical debate that they may be having,” AOC continued.

Hassan Piker has heaped praise on one of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top aides for calling to “impoverish the white middle class,” said that Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fl, should be killed, promised to “destroy the white race,” and said he does not have “an issue with an end goal of communism.”

Hasan Piker also said “it doesn’t matter if rapes happened on October 7th” and said that he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” Piker framed Hamas as fighting on behalf of the Palestinian people, who he argues are oppressed. Hamas’s charter calls on Muslims to hunt down and kill Jews. It cites a story from the “prophet” Muhammad about Jews hiding behind trees that call out to reveal their location so that they can be killed. Article 13 of Hamas’s charter rejects a negotiated peace and other initiatives as “a waste of time” and insists that the only solution to the Palestinian question is to commit Jihad.

Bill Clinton, who tried to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians during his presidency, said that he could not get a deal done because Hamas did not want a Palestinian state and co-existence — they wanted to kill Jews. Clinton’s account of the failure to negotiate a peace deal is consistent with the beliefs laid out in Hamas’s charter.

Hasan Piker praises these people, and Left-wing students in colleges across the country chant “globalize the intifada.” Hasan Piker has expressed support for the chant. There were two distinct intifidas — both of which involved the killing of Israeli civilians and Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. The second intifada was markedly more violent than the first and included suicide bombings by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other groups that targeted Israeli buses, restaurants, and nightclubs. When college students chant “intifada,” they are chanting for terrorist attacks.

AOC has to placate Piker and people who share his worldview. That is why, when she was asked whether Piker should be a leader of the “progressive” movement, she dodged the question by talking about whether or not Democrats should go on his show. But that was not what she was asked, and Karl did not follow up.

Instead, he glowingly referenced a poll that showed AOC was leading in New Hampshire among 2028 likely Democratic primary voters and asked her whether she would run for president. He did not follow up after she refused to answer his question about whether or not Piker — who said America deserved 9/11 — should be a leader of the progressive movement.

But in her response to his question, she said that Piker was like Joe Rogan. Hasan Piker is not like Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan did not say America deserved 9/11. Joe Rogan did not dismiss the suffering of the people who were raped by Hamas on October 7th. Joe Rogan has not called for the assassination of a United States Senator. Joe Rogan is someone who, until recently, was considered very liberal. The fact that Left-wing Democrats view him as being as controversial as Piker is ludicrous. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Ca, similarly compared appearing on Piker’s show with appearing on Joe Rogan.

Both AOC and Ro Khanna’s answers talked about the need to speak with Piker in order to build a coalition. And that is the problem they face, and one of the problems we face as a country. AOC needs the Hasan Piker-loving, Luigi Mangione-cheering sections of her party to win. And while AOC may be one the most far-Left prospective 2028 Democrat candidates, she is not Left enough for many of the country’s socialists and radicals. That is why the Democratic Socialists of America pulled their endorsement of her re-election campaign. AOC has a challenge if she runs in 2028 — she has to signal to the broader electorate that she is more moderate than she has been while being far-Left enough to maintain the support of neo-Marxists.

Right now, she’s doing both, which is why she is ascending. But her views are extreme, and to the extent that she is less extreme than the those even further-Left, she will be beholden to them. Piker, for his part, has said AOC is his top pick for president. But he qualified his view, saying that AOC does not harness the Left’s “populist rage” to the extent that she could and is “too liberal” in her presentation.

While AOC may be more radical than most Americans, she is less radical than many colleagues I have seen in law school and in the colleges I attended. The far-Left is ascendant in the Democrat Party, and many of them are further-Left than AOC. She will not condemn them and believes she must win their support. Remember that when AOC starts campaigning as a “sensible” centrist.

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Joe Silverstein is a recent graduate of Brooklyn Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor. Prior to attending law school, Joe was a reporter and digital production assistant for Fox News. He has been published in Fox News, Fox Business, The American Spectator, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Newseek, and the Washington Times. Joe holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University.