Tim Miller: Piker was "absolutely right" on the Middle East but should stop making himself the issue

On The Bulwark Daily, host Tim Miller said he had been criticising moderate Democrats for making Hasan Piker a bigger issue than he should be, and maintained that position: Piker holds what Miller called some bad views but was absolutely right about American policy on the wars in the Middle East, which Miller called the salient issue of the midterm, and Democrats should be reaching out to anti-war voters rather than scaring them away. He then said Piker's decision to give the Axios interview, and to answer yes when asked whether the United States is worse than al-Qaeda, was self-defeating, telling him to stop making himself the central issue of the Michigan race and asking who benefits from the interview. Guest Jesse Lehrich replied that he had no idea what Piker gets out of it.

“Everybody knows that I have been kind of dragging the moderates for making the Hassan Piker thing a bigger deal than it should be. And it's like, Hassan Piker has some bad views, but also he was absolutely right about what the U.S. should be doing with regards to the wars in the Middle East, and that is the salient issue of the midterm, and Democrats should be trying to reach out to anti-war voters and not scare them away. And so I still feel that way. But then Hassan has decided to do an interview with Axios for some reason … and he's getting asked about whether the U.S. is worse than al-Qaeda and he's like yes, and I'm going, bro, please … stop making yourself the central issue of the Michigan race. Like you can still live stream, do your thing. But who is benefiting from you talking to Axios?”