Scarborough YELLS At Democrats Over Hasan Piker and the Rise of DSA Ruining Things

Nicholas Spinnato
August 10th, 2026 3:38 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size
MS NOW/SnapStream

As the Democratic Party continued to reckon with far-left candidates' victories in primaries and the rise of radical terrorist-sympathizer Twitch streamer Hasan Piker as a campaign tool, Monday’s Morning Joe, specifically Joe Scarborough, went after Piker and the DSA in a nearly 30-minute-long segment. 

Scarborough showed great disapproval of Piker’s 9/11 comments and October 7th rape denial, and then yelled at Democrats over “fumbling the football” as the midterms neared.

After a clip played from an NBC Meet the Press interview with Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI), the Michigan Senate candidate whom Piker campaigned for, co-host Mika Brzezinski detailed Piker’s controversies.

 

 

Brzezinski began, “In 2019, he said America deserved 9/11 during a live stream,” and said he later “called it inappropriate, explaining that he was commenting on U.S. Foreign Policy, suggesting that the U.S. had brought it on ourselves.”

She also noted how Piker “has also downplayed or questioned reports of sexual violence by Hamas during the October 7th attacks on Israel, saying it doesn't matter if rapes occurred.”

Scarborough responded and detailed El-Sayed’s attempt to downplay Piker’s comments, even as he campaigned with him, and asked, “That's just not going to work in the general election, is it?”

 

 

He later compared Piker to far-right figure Nick Fuentes: “I would guess, though, if you had a Republican campaigning with Nick Fuentes across America. Yeah, there would be questions asked. Same thing with Piker here.”

But, former ESPN host and current The Athletic podcast host Pablo Torre took a different direction. He called the rise of DSA based on a “thirsting” for someone to call the War in Gaza “a genocide” and call for “economic justice.”

He then pushed back on the Fuentes comparison, and instead likened Piker to Charlie Kirk: “I don't think he's Nick Fuentes. I think he's more like Charlie Kirk. And the idea there are people who exist to provoke on the other side."

 

 

Scarborough then asked if Torre had talked to Hasan about the horrible comments. Torre responded with an explanation for Piker’s “America deserved 9/11” declaration:

It's the idea of American empire. Joe, and like, what have we wrought that we are now suffering, which is again, this academic historical analysis from a million feet. (...) It's something that you say when you're trying to make a point that forces the mainstream to reckon with all of the costs of what American militarism has done. 

Scarborough responded, “I just don't know how talking about Jewish women being raped has anything to do with what America's foreign policy has wrought.” Torre then said, “No, it’s horrible.”

To close the nearly 30-minute segment, Scarborough yelled at Democrats over “being so woke” and likened the DSA situation to Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential election loss:

 

 

But please, I don't need people telling me, oh, you have to just turn a blind eye to people saying that women getting raped on October 7th didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Americans aren't going to support that! 

This is not about me. This is about the Democrats once again fumbling the football on the two-yard line when they have a chance to make great gains, but being so woke, I don't know if you want to call it woke one, woke two, or woke three, but being too woke to call out the obvious! I swear to god!

Scarborough concluded, “It's crazy that we're even having this conversation!”

Morning Joe and Scarborough’s anger reflected the new reality for a show that downplayed DSA primary victories just a few months ago.

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

August 10, 2026

7:07:08 AM Eastern

(...)

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Piker has had a history of inflammatory and anti-Israel comments. In 2019, he said America deserved 9/11 during a live stream. Heard about that. After receiving backlash, he called it inappropriate, explaining that he was commenting on U.S. Foreign Policy, suggesting that the U.S. had brought it, brought it on ourselves. 

Piker has described Hamas as the lesser of two evils compared to the Israeli government in the Gaza war, calling the terrorist organization 1000 times better than, quote, “a fascist settler colonial apartheid state of Israel.”

He has also downplayed or questioned reports of sexual violence by Hamas during the October 7th attacks on Israel, saying it doesn't matter if rapes occurred.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: So, Gene Robinson, you know, Abdul EL-Sayed during the primary was very effective. And they would bring up, you know, quotes saying, “it doesn't matter if Israeli women were raped on October the 7th.” He said, “Well, I'm far more interested in the price of milk than what some podcaster says.” But then he would campaign with him day and day. That's just not going to work in the general election, is it?

EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, it's hard to see how it does. Now, I do wonder whether we've entered a phase in our politics when support by people who say atrocious things maybe doesn't have the impact that it once did. If you think of the people who have supported Donald Trump and his winning elections and all kinds of candidates, so I'm not sure about that.

I think ultimately, if Piker continues to, you know - if he goes on the campaign trail with El-Sayed and continues to say things that people find shocking, then I think he's going to have to distance himself somewhat. 

But, you know, I thought his answer to Kristen Welker was certainly an appropriate answer. But we'll see how it develops and how that plays.

And remember, it's the - you know, how is it going to play in Michigan? That's the big question.

BRZEZINSKI: Right.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. You know, Jonathan Lemire, you had Donald Trump, obviously, and rightfully catching a lot of grief when Nick Fuentes came to the White House and had dinner with him. 

I would guess, though, if you had a Republican campaigning with Nick Fuentes across America. Yeah, there would be questions asked. Same thing with Piker here.

Again, you heard El-Sayed say, “Oh, well, he's distanced himself from 9/11.” I only read a story about him distancing himself from his 9/11 comments. It seemed awfully strained and pained, that distancing. If he has said it more directly, like, “Yeah, that was a stupid thing to say. I shouldn't have said it,” etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, fine. 

But so far, I don't know that we've seen any really strong distancing from the 9/11 comments or also the comments about him not caring about Israeli women. I don't know the exact language, but it sounds like - the sexual abuse against Israeli women, I think he said, doesn't matter.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah. I mean, those comments obviously abhorrent. I suspect that El-Sayed is going to have to create a little more space between him and Piker and what he said. 

I mean, at the same time, you know, look, he's trying to speak to, you know, to those listeners that not everybody - probably people who are listening to Hasan Piker - not everyone agrees with everything he says. And I think he's trying to suggest that. But yes, there's no doubt -

SCARBOROUGH: But would you make the same argument, though, if a Republican campaigned with Fuentes? 

LEMIRE: Yeah, that was - Totally. That was the next point I was going to say.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah -

LEMIRE: There are certain things that you can't tolerate. You can't be okay with this. And Democrats would attack Republicans for associating with Fuentes. El-Sayed is going to hear this. Until he makes a more definitive break, he's going to hear this. 

And I think that that's telling as to where he is right now in this race, because this was a really bruising primary in Michigan. And look, that party in that state, to their credit, has really tried to come together very quickly here that Haley Stevens, you know, and others who lost in the primary very quick to say, “Look, that was a tough fight, but we want to support the Democratic nominee. Our party needs to win this seat.” And El-Sayed, to his credit, said, “Look, I want to reach out and make sure that we put her feelings aside and try to rally the party together.” 

Well, there are people who are clearly offended, rightly, by what Hasan Piker has said, and therefore El-Sayed is going to have to do more to create space from there, to disavow what he said. Because, look, I think the Democrats are also, rightly, try to hold themselves to a higher standard than Trump's Republican Party does. And they're starting to say, look, look, yes, we want to win, but not at any price, and we're trying to do things the right way. When we have seen time and time again this White House not care about things like that.

And we're trying to do things the right way. When we have seen time and time again this White House not care about things like that.

(...)

7:19:37 AM Eastern

PABLO TORRE: Yeah, what we're seeing is, I mean, you call it amateur hour. We are seeing national attention being put on a party that has existed previously to counterbalance what they saw as extremism in the other direction. 

And so, it's important to point out, I think, to me, the reason why the DSA is having this sort of resonance is because voters in the mainstream are thirsting for someone to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide. They're thirsting for someone to tax billionaires. They are thirsting for someone to say economic justice, Joe, is in fact our primary modus operandi. The issue is that because they've existed in relative darkness, in which they are trying to push something that feels like the counterbalance to the far-right, they are missing the opportunity to win over this show, to win over mainstream voters. 

Because there are ways to point out, as this show points out all the time, the Israeli government is something that is doing Jews no favors.

SCARBOROUGH: Right.

TORRE: That there is a problem in Gaza, that we should be taxing billionaires, that we should be aiming up instead of laterally. But because there is a historical analysis instead of a political one, you are missing the opportunity to build a coalition. 

And so what do you do? I think you try to avoid the faculty lounge, which is what that sounds like. It sounds like an opportunity to have a conversation that you should be having, not right now, in the middle of an election, but at some point, more abstractly. 

And in the meantime, you try to point out, look, Hasan Piker, I've talked to Hasan Piker before. I don't think he's Nick Fuentes. I think he's more like Charlie Kirk. And the idea there are people who exist to provoke on the other side. And the question is, as a party, as Dems, do you then hold yourself to a standard that is beyond what, again, the other side equivalent of the aisle is doing, and that's a political calculation for a party that hasn't made a lot of those, frankly.

SCARBOROUGH: So, I haven't spoken with Hasan Piker and haven't listened to him. When you talk to him, did you ask him about 9/11, about the justification of 9/11, or him being unconcerned about Israeli women being raped on October the 7th? That's not a leading question. I'm genuinely curious -

TORRE: No. No, no, no.

SCARBOROUGH: - if you had the opportunity to him about that.

TORRE: Have not debated him on those issues. I know that that stuff that I would never say. And the reality of that analysis that he has is familiar. It's the idea of American empire. Joe, and like, what have we wrought that we are now suffering, which is again, this academic historical analysis from a million feet

But Abdul El-Sayed, from what he's saying now, right? What he's saying is “I would never say it, and it's unconscionable.” And that's correct. 

But I welcome, by the way, that conversation. I don't even think it's a thing Hasan would debate at this point. It's something that you say when you're trying to make a point that forces the mainstream to reckon with all of the costs of what American militarism has done. 

SCARBOROUGH: Well, I -

TORRE: And I would not say it. It's ridiculous.

SCARBOROUGH: I just don't know how talking about Jewish women being raped has anything to do with what America's foreign policy has wrought.

TORRE: No, it's horrible.

SCARBOROUGH And I will say also, I can't imagine anybody ever doing that. Just to, you know, just to grab attention. And so, I don't understand it. 

(...)

7:28:57 AM Eastern

SCARBOROUGH: All right. So, listen, Jonathan Lemire. First of all, there's no great conspiracy here. The reason why more people are talking about the DSA right now is because you have the mayor of the most important city in America who, first of all, is identified as DSA. He's proven to be, I think, extremely pragmatic in many ways. And while there are a lot of people who despise how successful he's been, his approval ratings are high. Murder rate, the lowest I think it's ever been on record. The economy. We're going to be reading something from the Financial Times, talking about actually how New York City is thriving right now, based on just about every metric. 

But you also have people in New York City that have been saying some whacked-out things. I think most mainstream voters would say they're whacked-out things when they're talking about going to pro-Hamas rallies the day after Hamas slaughtered more Jews than on any day since the Holocaust. I think 90 percent of Americans would think that is abhorrent. And so, you know, again, they'll try to blur the lines, going “Oh, well, they just don't support health care for all or, oh, no, no, we're not saying that. We just support hate speech” and - but - it is also very important though. Why are we talking about DSA now? Because the democratic party has a choice to make. 

Now, I said this day in and day out leading up to Kamala Harris's election.

You couldn't watch an NFL game without seeing 300 taxpayers are going to pay for trans surgeries for convicts ads on NFL games. And even though they still pretend that did not move viewers, I think the trump campaign spent $30 million on those ads, and it moved working-class men. Working-class white men, working-class black men -

BRZEZINSKI: Or it kept them where they are.

SCARBOROUGH: - working class hispanic men. It just did. And the Democrats had their head in the sand. 

So, there's nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting economic justice. There's nothing wrong with Democrats supporting, you know, cutting taxes or getting rid of the Trump taxes and making billionaires pay more in taxes. That's legitimate. That's a legitimate mainstream debate for people to have. Health care for all. Health care is unaffordable. That is something most Americans would agree with. 

But please, I don't need people telling me, oh, you have to just turn a blind eye to people saying that women getting raped on October 7th didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Americans aren't going to support that! 

This is not about me. This is about the Democrats once again fumbling the football on the two-yard line when they have a chance to make great gains, but being so woke, I don't know if you want to call it woke one, woke two, or woke three, but being too woke to call out the obvious! I swear to god! 

It's really - it's crazy that we're even having this conversation! If somebody says a woman being raped doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, it's okay to call that person out and demand that candidates distance themselves from those people!

If you want to rule - if you want to rule over a party and win elections! If somebody says going to a rally the day after Hamas slaughters more Jews than any time since the Holocaust, it's okay for Chuck Schumer, it's okay for Hakeem Jeffries to call that despicable and demand that people distance themselves from that. That's okay! 

So, why are we bringing this up now? We're bringing this up now because it seems an awful lot like what was happening in 2024, when Democrats couldn't get out of their own way to win an election. They should have won.

(...)

Donor Privacy Policy