Photo: Joshua Lott/Getty Images
Remember the media firestorm in 2016 when Donald Trump supposedly failed to denounce former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke?
Trump, appearing on CNN, claimed he did not know enough about Duke to disavow him. Trump later blamed a faulty earpiece and repudiated Duke and the KKK. But the episode became Exhibit A for those who accused Trump of using racial "dog whistles."
Then-Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan declared, "If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry." Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "Senate Republicans condemn David Duke, the KKK and his racism."
When Duke later announced a Republican candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said: "David Duke & his hateful bigotry have no place in the Republican Party & the RNC will never support his candidacy under any circumstance."
Now consider the Democratic Party's treatment of Hasan Piker, the socialist streamer who said, "America deserved 9/11." He called Israel "the Jewish ISIS" and declared Hamas "1,000 times better than Israel." Piker warned that if American Jews continue to show, as Piker put it, to be "singularly invested in Israel," eventually someone would "take action" against them.
Unlike Duke in 2016, Piker is not a politically marginal figure with little influence. The Anti-Defamation League estimates he has over 11 million combined followers. He has interviewed or appeared online with Democrats Sen. Bernie Sanders; Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar; New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani; Rep. Ro Khanna; and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Piker campaigned for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed called Piker's 9/11 statement "dumb," and El-Sayed said, "Of course I don't think 9/11 was justified." But he did not disavow Piker. After Piker's latest remarks about American Jews, El-Sayed released a statement condemning antisemitism and political violence - without naming Piker.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin condemned blaming American Jews for threats and violence as "dangerous, wrong and antisemitic." He did not name Piker.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called the claim that American Jews invite violence against themselves "dangerous and antisemitic" and said it "should not be tolerated." He did not name Piker. The next day he said he meant Piker.
Then there is Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. For years, Schumer has called the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement "antisemitic," describing its double standard as "the 21st-century version of anti-Semitism." Piker supports BDS, as do Mamdani and El-Sayed. Yet Schumer fails to call Piker, Mamdani, or El-Sayed antisemitic - and Schumer has endorsed El-Sayed.
Former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on the other hand, said: "Hasan Piker is a stone cold anti-Semite. Period. Stop...There is no welcome mat for anti-Semites and bigots in the Democratic Party."
Yet El-Sayed even refuses to promise to stop campaigning with the man he refers to as "Hasan."
Republican leaders did not issue careful statements opposing "hate" while delicately avoiding Duke's name. They identified him, condemned him, and told voters that neither he nor his racism belonged in their party. Democratic leaders denounce antisemitism while avoiding the name of an antisemite welcomed by prominent elected Democrats and used as a campaign surrogate by their Michigan Senate nominee.
The blatantly racist Duke has no meaningful Republican constituency. The blatantly antisemitic Piker, on the other hand, commands millions of young followers coveted by progressive Democrats. This means denouncing Piker could provoke the party's ascendant and increasingly antisemitism-tolerant socialist wing.
For years, Democrats and their media allies demanded that Republican leaders answer for every offensive figure somewhere on the right. Silence was complicity. Evasion was endorsement. Failure to name names was cowardice.
Where is that standard now?
Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. John Fetterman and Rep. Debbie Dingell have condemned Piker by name. Yet Ken Martin, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer and Abdul El-Sayed repeat the words their former party chairwoman had the decency to say: Hasan Piker is "a stone cold anti-Semite" and has no place in the party.
Until then, the party that lectured "racist" Republicans about David Duke shows that their cry for moral clarity from Trump was not about morality or bigotry.
It was about politics.
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