Debbie Dingell wants Piker "to go away" while agreeing the Iran school strike was horrific
Debbie DingellU.S. Representative for Michigan's 6th congressional district, interviewed on CNN
Rep. Debbie Dingell discusses Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed on CNN, Sept. 17, 2026.
Excerpt from 0:42 to 2:02 of the CNN video. DI added its logo in the corner.
Video: CNN. Excerpt used for news reporting and commentary
Watch the full original video (opens in a new tab) (relevant passage: 2:02 clip. 00:06–00:41: the Axios exchange played back, including Alex Thompson's question and Piker's answer; 00:43–01:00: CNN reports El-Sayed told Manu Raju before the clip published that he would not campaign with Piker in the general election, and asks whether he needs to do more to distance himself; 01:02–01:58: Rep. Debbie Dingell's answer.)
Asked on CNN whether Abdul El-Sayed needed to do more to distance himself from Hasan Piker after the Axios interview, Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell said she was sick of talking about Piker and wanted him to go away, and questioned why he gave the interview. She agreed with part of what he said, calling the bombing of the school in Iran horrific and saying the United States should not be in the war in Iran, while distancing herself from his other positions: she said Israel has a right to exist and called things he has said about women horrific. She said the election is about El-Sayed rather than Piker, urged Piker to stop going on television if he wants El-Sayed elected, and said El-Sayed must make clear he does not agree with what Piker has said.
“I'm so sick of talking about Hasan Piker and I want Hasan Piker to go away. I don't know why he had to do that interview. … The bombing of the school in Iran was horrific. We shouldn't be in the war in Iran. … This election is about Abdul El-Sayed, not Hasan Piker. … If he wants to see Abdul El-Sayed elected, stop going on television. Abdul has got to make it clear that he does not agree with the things that he has said.”
Interview
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
Interview
About this source
CNN political programming segment of September 17, 2026, in which Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan is asked whether Abdul El-Sayed needs to do more to distance himself from Hasan Piker after Piker's Axios interview. The segment separately reports that El-Sayed told CNN's Manu Raju, before the interview clip published, that he would not campaign with Piker in the general election, having done so in the primary. Quotations are taken from CNN's broadcast closed captions, which render proper nouns correctly but are delivered in rolling form.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Watch the clip from this source at the top of the page.
Before the quotation
CNN played the Axios exchange, including Alex Thompson's question and Piker's "pound for pound" answer, then reported that El-Sayed had told CNN's Manu Raju, before the clip published, that he would not campaign with Piker in the general election, having campaigned with him in the primary. The interviewer asked whether El-Sayed needed to do more to distance himself.
After the quotation
Dingell closed by saying she wished everybody would stop talking about Piker so the conversation could turn to what she called the issues at stake in November, giving access to a doctor when sick as her example. The interviewer responded that he sensed her frustration.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Dingell combines materially different responses to it. She endorses part of the basis he gave — that the Iran school strike was horrific and that the United States should not be in that war — while declining to accept the comparison itself and rejecting his positions on Israel and on women, and she presses El-Sayed to disavow him. The closest competing label is “Explicitly stayed out”, given her repeated wish that everyone stop talking about Piker; it loses because she engages with the substance before redirecting, and the guidance is to evaluate the answer given rather than the closing redirect. condemns also loses, because she never rejects the comparison on the merits.
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- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Hasan Piker, Abdul El-Sayed
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“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
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The Dispute Index. "Debbie Dingell wants Piker "to go away" while agreeing the Iran school strike was horrific". First published: 2026-09-17. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/970-asked-on-cnn-whether-abdul-el-sayed-needed