Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha slammed Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) defense for appearing on a controversial streamer’s show to speak to voters.
Khanna has made several appearances on Twitch streamer Hasan Piker’s show. The internet personality has referred to ultra-Orthodox Jewish people as “inbred” and argued the Hamas terrorist group is “a thousand times better” than the Israeli state, among other controversial statements, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Khanna defended his discussions with Piker on Sunday, saying he condemns these statements, but he would go on Piker’s show again. He also asked whether the controversy of his speaking with Piker means Democrats shouldn’t appear with other commentators, such as Joe Rogan or Theo Von, according to NBC’s Meet the Press.
Concha, however, called Khanna’s explanation “pathetic,” arguing that Rogan and Piker are not comparable.
“At last check, Rogan, unlike Hasan Piker, didn’t call Jews ‘inbreds.’ It is Piker who said that America deserved 9/11, nearly 3,000 people died on that day,” Concha said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends First on Monday.
“This is the same Hasan Piker who said it doesn’t matter to him if rapes occurred during the Oct. 7 attacks, 2023. This is a guy who has called his critics, quote, ‘Rabid ultra zionist pigs.’ He also called on Republicans to kill Sen. Rick Scott [R-FL], and Ro Khanna told Meet the Press yesterday, as you just played, he has no regrets going on his show like that and would happily do it again? Why? Because Piker has 2.8 million followers, mostly young men?”
Concha asked if Democrats are “that desperate” to win voters to try and “cater to the antisemitic wing” of the party. He added that people like Piker do not deserve attention, as it only “rewards” Piker’s rhetoric.
“And I thought that [Khanna] was smarter than this, I thought he was more toward the center,” Concha said. “He’s clearly proving that he is not.”
Khanna’s office directed the Washington Examiner to X when requesting comment.
“Spare me the sanctimony @JoeConchaTV. I like you,” Khanna said in reply to Concha. “But did you ever speak out against Trump’s birther lie against Obama to build his political following or his appearance on Alex Jones? Or is this just selective outrage?”
Khanna said there is “obviously a line” that he would draw on what shows he would appear on, but he wouldn’t draw it at Piker. He also said that he wouldn’t appear on Alex Jones’s show, a commentator who made false claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Khanna was elevated to ranking member of the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party in January. Piker has praised China in the past, saying the country’s economy and political system is “probably the closest” to “an example that we should learn from.”
