Rep. Brad Schneider, who chairs the moderate New Democrat Coalition in the House, said Democrats should not appear with podcaster Hasan Piker because of his views on Hamas.
“What Hasan Piker is promoting is division and hate,” Schneider said on the On NOTUS podcast. “[He] says he would take Hamas over Israel a thousand times, Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel. Hamas is a terrorist organization, to be supporting that is not a reflection of who we are as a party.”
Piker recently defended remarks that he “would vote for Hamas over Israel” on the “Pod Save America” podcast.
Piker appeared at a campaign stop in April with Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic primary candidate in Michigan’s Senate race, and Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee.
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In a recent Pew poll, 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents surveyed said they had an unfavorable view of Israel, something Schneider attributed to images from the war in Gaza and a social media agitation.
“The focused campaign of enemies of peace and enemies of Israel, you see it on social media, to delegitimize Israel, unfairly delegitimize Israel, is certainly having an impact on the public perception,” Schneider said.
Schneider and the New Democrat Coalition recently unveiled a new anti-corruption agenda to combat the corruption that Schneider said is undermining faith in the government.
“New Dems want to make sure that every American can look at what’s happening in Washington and be confident that the people they’ve elected to represent them are putting the people’s interest first, rather than the personal interests,” Schneider said.
He also said that safe House seats created by mid-decade redistricting create havoc in Congress and are “bad for the country.”
“When districts are gerrymandered and you look at what’s happened with the Freedom Caucus and how they have literally taken a moment where they’re holding the Speaker of the House, the Republican Speaker of the House, hostage,” Schneider said. “Gerrymandering only leads to the extremes.”
Looking ahead to 2028, Schneider said he expects the Democratic presidential primary field will include more than 20 candidates, potentially including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“I have no doubt it’s going to be a crowded field, but it’s going to be a talented field and we’ll have an amazing choice,” Schneider said.
On NOTUS is a weekly podcast where NOTUS reporters talk to lawmakers about how they got to Washington and what motivates them. You can download or listen here.
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