Francesca Fiorentini
Role at the time: Host of The Bitchuation Room
Statement summary
Reacting on The Bitchuation Room to the MS NOW interview of Hasan Piker, host Francesca Fiorentini said “you made him the media figure for bad reasons” and that he “was out here minding his damn business.” She said many Democrats “would be absolutely okay with him utilizing his millions of followers to do nothing at all” but not with his using them “to actually boot out these do-nothing establishment Democrats,” and that if Abdul El-Sayed wins it will be “in spite of this massive national coordinated campaign” over Piker’s words. She also said Piker was “trying to be so nice” to Sanders and “should have gone harder.”
“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”
Why we used this label
The case covers two prongs: whether Piker’s comparison is defensible, and what his statements mean for the candidates associated with him. Fiorentini addresses the second prong. She rejects the campaign to make candidates answer for Piker, says he was made the story “for bad reasons,” and defends his use of his platform to elect candidates. The defense covers his political role, not his words: she does not mention the al-Qaeda comparison. Her remark that he “should have gone harder” with Sanders criticizes his interview tactics, not the conduct under scrutiny. The closest competing label is minimizes, which this case uses for rejecting the demand to denounce him; it loses because she does not downplay his statements or concede fault, and she affirmatively defends his role.