MS NOW "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough launched a blistering attack on far-left streamer Hasan Piker and Democrats unwilling to distance themselves from his rhetoric Monday, warning the party risked repeating what he viewed as its costly 2024 mistakes after Piker ally Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate nomination.
Scarborough, raising his voice and shouting at times, said Democrats were "too woke to call out the obvious" and questioned why party leaders were reluctant to draw a line over Piker's past comments about rape during Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack, when he remarked that it didn't matter to him if it occurred.
"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 1, woke 2, or woke 3, but being too woke to call out the obvious!" Scarborough yelled. "I swear to God. It's really, it's crazy that we're even having this conversation."
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has sought to turn El-Sayed's continued relationship with Piker into a general election liability. RNC national spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre told Fox News Digital Sunday that Democrats' unwillingness to disavow the streamer reflected a broader problem for the party.
"El-Sayed is a terrorist sympathizer and an America-hating socialist. His refusal to distance himself from Hamas-hugging radicals like Hasan Piker reaffirms his true allegiance is to terrorist groups, not America. Democrats' refusal to disavow this clown shows they either share his poisonous ideology or they're too cowardly to confront it," Baldassarre said.
"The Democrat Party is being driven off [a] cliff by socialists who are driving blindfolded while arguing about the view. Unless Democrats hit the brakes, every candidate on the ballot will have to answer for socialists’ outrageous beliefs that will bankrupt our country and strip every American of safety, sanity, and freedom," she added.
Scarborough specifically called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to demand that candidates distance themselves from such rhetoric.
"If somebody says, a woman being raped doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, it's OK to call that person out and demand that candidates distance themselves from those people!" Scarborough shouted.
The fight has intensified since El-Sayed narrowly defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Piker made repeated appearances with El-Sayed, including at a Detroit pool party the night before the primary. El-Sayed has rejected Piker's most controversial remarks but resisted calls to sever ties.
"Of course I oppose rape. Of course I don't think 9/11 was justified," El-Sayed said during an April appearance on "Fox & Friends." "[Just] because you appear with somebody, doesn't mean you agree with them on everything."
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has also challenged El-Sayed to maintain the relationship now that he must appeal beyond Democratic primary voters.
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"I dare you to continue to campaign with people like Hasan Piker because he now will quickly find out it’s easy to campaign in the echo chamber as a Democrat," Fetterman told Fox News Digital.
Piker has pushed Democrats in the opposite direction, calling for party members who refuse to support El-Sayed to be "punished," while centrist Democratic group Third Way recently announced a $15 million campaign aimed at weakening the Democratic Socialists of America's influence.
Scarborough said the debate reminded him of Democrats' failure to recognize cultural issues that hurt them during the 2024 election.
"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," he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC, El-Sayed, Piker and Schumer for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
