WASHINGTON D.C — Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Democrats must stop hedging on Twitch streamer Hasan Piker’s antisemitic remarks and should challenge him directly, telling CNN he would go on Piker’s show and “give him a two-by-four upside his head.”
Emanuel, a veteran Democratic operative who is considering a 2028 presidential run, spoke Monday on CNN’s “The Arena.” He was responding to Piker’s recent claim that American Jews who strongly support Israel are inviting violence against themselves.
“I can give him a two-by-four upside his head because of what he said,” Emanuel said. He added that he would appear on Piker’s stream “to give the antisemitic streamer a lesson in what he is perpetuating and the advocacy and the rhetoric of what he’s doing.”
Emanuel, who is Jewish, said Piker “needs to be challenged” over the comments.
“What he said the other day, I think I’m glad he said it, because it’s out front that somehow we invited the violence against ourselves,” Emanuel said.
He argued that Democrats would treat the remarks differently if they targeted any other group.
“Anybody associated with that rhetoric needs to disassociate with them, because if it was any other group in America — any other group — people would be worked up and in a tizzy, appropriately,” he said. “Now, if this was any other constituency, the party would deal with this. But everybody seems to be like, ‘Oh, this is OK, whatever.’”
Emanuel also pointed to Piker’s earlier claim that the United States “deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, remarks Piker later described as “imprecise.”
Piker’s ties to Democrats have become a flashpoint, especially in Michigan’s Senate race. Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed has sought to distance his campaign from the streamer after backlash over Piker’s comments about pro-Israel Jews.
Some Democrats have condemned Piker. Others have downplayed the controversy as a distraction or a Republican talking point.
Emanuel said that silence undermines the party’s credibility when it condemns antisemitism on the right.
“If I can’t say it about him, you clearly can’t attack people who go around chanting ‘the Jews will not replace us,’ and have a president of the United States saying ‘there are good people on both sides,’” he said, referring to the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“My point is we need to deal with this out front,” Emanuel said. “But everybody seems to get tongue-tied when it comes to antisemitism, and that to me is unacceptable.”
He rejected the idea that the problem is only a Democratic one, citing FBI data showing Jews remain the most frequent targets of religion-based hate crimes.
“It’s not a party problem,” he said. “If you segregate it as somehow ‘this is political or partisan,’ you’re actually allowing it a pass.”
In March, an Emanuel spokesman told Politico that Emanuel was open to appearing on Piker’s show, saying he is “always willing to have difficult conversations with anyone about the future of the country, and to tell people he disagrees with why they’re wrong.”
On “Fox News Sunday,” Emanuel separately said the Democratic Socialists of America, which has backed candidates accused of spreading antisemitism, is not part of the Democratic Party.
“The Democratic Party is not open to being taken over,” he said.
As reported by VINnews