John Fetterman
Role at the time: U.S. Senator (D-PA)
Statement summary
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.”
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.
Why we used 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.