Fetterman: "I feel like I lost to Hasan Piker"
John FettermanU.S. Senator (D-PA)
John Fetterman told reporters he was giving up his campaign of criticism against Piker, saying "I feel like I lost to Hasan Piker" and that he could not compete with a figure the Democratic base embraces despite the al-Qaeda comparison.
“He's an individual that just declared that we are worse than al Qaeda. And Democrats are campaigning with him, defending him, and my -- our base loves him. So, I mean, I can't compete with that.”
Reporting
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Hasan Piker's Axios Show interview claims about terrorism, Iran, China and Israel
In an interview for "The Axios Show" conducted by Alex Thompson, Hasan Piker was asked whether America commits more terrorism than the organization behind the September 11 attacks and answered "Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes," adding that the United States has "caused tremendous terror all around the world." He cited a U.S. missile strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, and said the analysis does not justify the September 11 attacks. Excerpts published September 17, 2026 also carried his view that the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon, while he said he does not want Iran, the United States, Russia or China to possess nuclear arms and was not advocating Iranian armament. The full episode, published September 18, added further contested claims: that Mao Zedong was "a great man of history" whose "excesses" were "deaths born out of mismanagement and famine"; that a Chinese child may have better conditions than an American one within two decades; that "Zionism is fascism" and that he is not worried his audience would turn violent against Zionists; and that Israel "in its current formation" should not be a U.S. ally. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan for whom Piker campaigned in the primary, rejected the al-Qaeda comparison. The dispute is whether these claims are defensible analysis of U.S., Middle Eastern and Chinese policy or indefensible positions, and what they mean for the candidates associated with him.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
The Hill's report on Fetterman's Thursday, September 17, 2026 remarks, which it attributes directly to an exchange with Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram. This rendering preserves a self-correction ("my -- our base loves him") and ends "I can't compete with that"; a Sinclair/National News Desk version of the same remarks smooths the disfluency and ends "I can't compete with that guy." This rendering is treated as the more faithful of the two because it retains the disfluency and names the journalist who took the quote.
Reporting
About this source
Sinclair/The National News Desk report on Fetterman's remarks to reporters at Hunt Valley, Maryland on Thursday, September 17, 2026. Wording varies across outlets: a Fox News rendering (via Chad Pergram) preserves a self-correction ("my -- our base loves him") that this cleaned-up version omits, and a Washington Examiner rendering differs again. The quotation recorded here follows this source; the underlying remarks were spoken, not written.
Before the quotation
Said to Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram on Thursday, September 17, 2026, after months of publicly urging Abdul El-Sayed to distance himself from Piker.
After the quotation
Fetterman separately told reporters "I feel like I lost to Hasan Piker." Two renderings of these spoken remarks circulate: the one recorded here, from The Hill via Pergram, preserves his self-correction; a Sinclair/National News Desk version smooths it and ends "I can't compete with that guy."
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to the specific claim at issue -- Piker's assertion that America commits more terrorism than al-Qaeda -- Fetterman rejects it, citing it as the example of why Piker should not be embraced by Democrats. His broader remark is a concession about party dynamics, not a softening of his objection to the claim.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Hasan Piker
More from this case
Read the full caseJB Pritzker, asked whether Democrats should denounce Piker, redirects to stopping Trump
“You know, I'm not focused on the streamers and what they're saying. There's a whole lot of them, and they got a whole lot of views. I'm just saying that what I think we should be talking about and focused on is how do we stop Donald Trump in his tracks? How do we make sure that we're putting forward an agenda that really fights for the people who need it, which are the most vulnerable? The workers, you know, the middle class who really need someone to stand up for them. That's why I'm a Democrat. That's why the Democratic Party exists. That's what we should be focused on. You know, again, I'm not focused. I don't even want to talk about it. Hasan Piker doesn't mean anything to me or in my election.”Read statement
Francesca Fiorentini says Piker’s critics “made him the media figure for bad reasons” and would prefer he “do nothing at all”
“You made him the media figure for bad reasons. He was out here minding his damn business.” … “They would be absolutely okay with him utilizing his millions of followers to do nothing at all, because they would prefer that than for him to use the followers to actually boot out these do-nothing establishment Democrats”Read statement
Emma Vigeland says a “coordinated campaign” is what could make Piker “politically toxic” and faults Symone Sanders as an interviewer
“I mean, she didn’t listen to anything that he said. What she responded to was completely disconnected from the point he was making. I’m shocked at how poor of an interviewer she is and listener, if she was listening at all.” … “They feel like they have hours and hours of footage of [Hasan] sometimes saying edgy or inflammatory things by their own conservative standards, and they feel like this is a figure that we can define. And so when they act like, why are you going out there to campaign for candidates if you’re so politically toxic, as if this coordinated campaign against him wasn’t what would potentially make him politically toxic.”Read statement
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- Fetterman: "I feel like I lost to Hasan Piker"
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The Dispute Index. "Fetterman: "I feel like I lost to Hasan Piker"". First published: 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-18. https://disputeindex.com/events/1023-john-fetterman-told-reporters-he-was-giving-up