Hasan Piker Says a Longtime House Democrat Is Using 'Reactionary' Attacks

Streamer Hasan Piker says Representative Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, has turned to the right's playbook against her progressive challenger, Sacramento City Council member Mai Vang. He points to a Matsui ad that ties Vang to him.

The two watched the ad together on Piker's show. The Nov. 3 general election is 16 days away, and it pits two Democrats against each other in California's 7th Congressional District.

"Democrats are supposed to be the progressive force in American politics," Piker said. But "the moment that, um, you know, institutional Dems, corporate Dems have to face a left flank opponent. They very quickly drop all, all a notion of progressivism and they start leaning into these like incredibly reactionary lines of attack."

What the Matsui Ad Says About Hasan Piker

The ad opens by asking who Vang is, then says, "Embracing extremist Hasan Piker shows her true colors." It plays audio of Piker saying "America deserved 9/11" and closes: "We can't send Mai Vang to Congress."

Piker did say it, during an August 2019 livestream while he was reacting to Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw on Joe Rogan's podcast. Two days later, on The Young Turks, he clarified that U.S. actions in the Middle East created the extremism behind the attacks, PolitiFact reported. In April 2026 he told the Associated Press he "didn't mean that Americans deserved to die." In Michigan, Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers has used the same remark against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, saying in an Aug. 5 statement that El-Sayed "believes America deserved 9/11". PolitiFact rated that claim Pants on Fire.

The Matsui campaign made the same point when the livestream was announced. "It's definitely a choice for Mai Vang to align herself with an anti-American and anti-Semitic clout chaser to raise money for her flailing and out of touch campaign," Roger Salazar, a senior adviser to the campaign, told FOX40.

Piker, who is Turkish American and says he comes from a Muslim background, said he has heard "otherizing" attacks for his whole career, mostly from conservatives like Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro. The difference this cycle, he said, is "hearing those exact same right wing attack ads coming from liberals."

Mai Vang Says the Ad Targets Young Voters

Piker opened the interview by jokingly asking whether Vang would disavow him. She did not answer yes or no. "Hasan, you are also part of the movement, right?" she said, adding that candidates should "meet the people where they are."

She took offense at a line in Matsui's attacks calling it irresponsible for her to meet young voters on their own ground. "I think that's literally an attack on everyone that's like streaming right now," Vang said. She said students at Sacramento State and UC Davis had pressed her to come on the show.

The stream reached its $50,000 fundraising goal for her campaign.

Why Republican Voters Matter in CA-7

Piker argued that the ad is not really aimed at Democrats. "So I think the reason why they're doing this ad is not to obviously like win favor with the democratic voters," he said, before suggesting the target is Republicans.

The primary numbers explain why. Under California's top-two system, Vang finished first in June with 30.8 percent of the vote to Matsui's 29.1 percent, CapRadio reported. It was the first time Matsui had run second in a primary since she won the seat in 2005, after the death of her husband, Representative Bob Matsui. Republican Zachariah Wooden finished third, and roughly 44,000 voters who backed him now have no candidate from their own party.

Kim Nalder, a political scientist at Sacramento State, told CapRadio that Republican voters in the district now face a dilemma.

Proposition 50, the mid-decade redistricting measure California voters approved, redrew the district. Vang put the change in partisan terms on the show: "district seven was a plus 22. It is now plus 12." The redrawn seat is still safely Democratic, but "we do have a larger number of Republicans," she said.

She said that "our opposition is banking that they're going to get all the Republican votes," and that consultants have urged her to move toward the center. She said Republican and independent voters she meets in El Dorado County, Lodi and Galt care about housing, health care and banning stock trading by members of Congress.

"No, I'm not going to change who I am," Vang said.

What to Watch Before Nov. 3

Vang said her campaign was outspent three to one in the primary and expects to be outspent eight to one in the general. Piker told viewers more attack ads were likely now that she had appeared on his show.

Whether that helps Matsui depends on voters who are not in the Democratic base the ad is supposed to be speaking for. For an 82-year-old incumbent whose family has held the seat since 1979, those Republican votes may decide the race.