The midterm elections are in a couple months and Democrats are spending an awful lot of time talking about Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who holds no elected office and is not responsible for the nation’s sorry economic and political condition. There are compelling reasons to dislike Piker, just as there are very good arguments against Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars. However, Democrats really shouldn’t waste time right now talking about either.
I get it, though: Republicans are making hay of Piker, who frequently makes statements that are simultaneously offensive and poorly thought out. Piker was a wedge issue in the recent Michigan Democratic Senate primary, but Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has distanced himself from Piker and has no plans to campaign with him during the general election. Nonetheless, very serious Democrats want to extend the five minute of hate against Piker.
People have argued that although Piker — and many of his staunchest supporters — are often foolish, there is still room for them within an anti-MAGA coalition, the Democrats’ supposed “big tent.” Others counter that the “big tent” isn’t quite that big. It’s more medium-sized.
Former Republican House Rep. Joe Walsh, who registered as a Democrat last year, posted last week on social media, “This shouldn’t have to be said, but the Democratic Party tent shouldn’t include racists. It shouldn’t include antisemites either. No room for bigotry of any kind. No tent should be that big.
Right?”
Walsh has had a history of controversial statements that could’ve easily qualified him as a “racist.” Like many Tea Party Republicans in 2010, Walsh rode the wave of anti-Obama sentiment among the party to electoral victory, defeating Rep. Melissa Bean in Illinois. (Somewhat ironic, given current handwringing among Democrats, is how election insiders at the time thought hardliners like Walsh would endanger GOP chances at winning the midterms.)
When incorrectly predicting a Mitt Romney victory in 2012, Walsh told a Tea Party rally: “There’s something different on the ground and I think it’s going to overtake us all again. I think it’s going to overtake the political class. I think it’s going to respectfully pick this president up and pat him on the head and say, son, son, son, Mr. President, you were never ready to be president, now go home and work for somebody and find out how the real world works.” (Walsh is the same age as Obama.)
Walsh had also suggested that Obama was only elected in the first place because he was “a black man who was articulate.” There are a lot of us who fit that pretty low-bar qualification, and it’s not as if America’s lining up to make us president. It’s this racist notion that life is somehow easier for Black people.
He claimed that radical Muslims were “trying to kill Americans every week.” He also promoted the conspiracy theory that Obama was a “secret” Muslim. “Obama is a Muslim. Happy New Year!” Walsh wrote in 2017. (Those were simpler days, now the conspiracy theory is that every liberal is openly antisemitic.)
He told an audience in Schaumburg, Illinois, that “the Democratic Party promises groups of people everything. They want the Hispanic vote, they want Hispanics to be dependent on government, just like they got African Americans dependent on government. That’s their game.”
Walsh served just a single term in the House. Tammy Duckworth defeated him in 2012, on her way to the Senate. He then transitioned into a career as a professional shit stirrer on conservative radio (a very last decade form of podcasting or Twitch streaming). He was briefly kicked off the air after using racial and ethnic slurs on his show. “I’m told that Redskins is every bit as racist as the N-word, so there can be no Washington Redskins,” Walsh said. “Well, to me, that’s really hypocritical. I don’t get it. If Redskins is like the N-word, then why do you get to say Redskins, but you don't say the N-word?” (This is similar to a John Mulaney bit that’s actually funny.)
Live-tweeting through his racist tirade, Walsh revealed, “Found out if I said Redskins or Cracker or Redneck Bible Thumper, I could stay on. But if I said Nigger or Spick, they cut me off.” An intern at the radio station could’ve explained these broadcast standards basics to him.
After five Dallas police officers were shot and killed on July 7, 2016, Walsh posted on social media, “This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out Black Lives Matter punks. Real America is coming after you.” People reasonably interpreted this as a threat, especially since Obama was leaving office the next year so “Real America” couldn’t come “after” him peacefully at the ballot box. This felt more like raising a lynch mob. Walsh later insisted, “I wasn’t calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama’s words and BLM’s deeds have gotten cops killed. Time for us to defend our cops.” Walsh deleted the first post — presumably before it resulted in a visit from Secret Service — but replaced it with one even more racist: “Obama says Cops are racist so 2 uneducated black thugs shoot 10 Dallas Cops tonight, killing 4.” (Obama never said “cops are racist” and obviously the race of the shooters was only relevant if you’re in the race war promotion business.)
Walsh was predictably a major Donald Trump supporter in 2016. Shortly before the election, he posted on social media, “On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket. You in?” This was hardly a pro-democracy statement. It presaged the anti-democratic rhetoric that lead to the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Like Trump’s later defense of his attempted coup, Walsh later claimed his remarks didn’t literally call for violently overturning a free-and-fair election.
“It means protesting,” Walsh insisted. “Participating in acts of civil disobedience. Doing what it takes to get our country back.”
When music legend Stevie Wonder took a knee at at a concert in September 2017, which actually was non-violent protest, Walsh dismissed him as “another ungrateful Black multimillionaire.” At least JD Vance trust the racially coded language when he calls liberals of color “ungrateful.” Walsh made Vance look PC.
Walsh eventually broke from Trump with a zealot’s conviction. He launched a primary challenge against Trump, which is when he finally apologized for all his past racist remarks. Now, you know you said some racist shit when you have to stress that you’re not a racist when running in a GOP primary against Donald Trump.
“I wouldn’t call myself a racist,” Walsh told John Heilemann in 2019, “but I would say … I’ve said racist things on Twitter. There’s no doubt about it. And an apology is not enough.”
I agree that an apology alone is often insufficient, though it’s certainly a good first step. Has Walsh proven himself a reliable ally? That’s hard to say. He has a demonstrated habit of temporarily altering his views according to what he believes best benefits him politically. He ran as pro-choice in the 1990s when trying to compete in Democratic-heavy districts. In 2012, though, he “argued that the research is pretty clear that with the advances in modern medicine an invasive and traumatic procedure like abortion is often, thankfully, not necessary to save the life of a mother.” In 1996, he’d claimed that he was “the most gay friendly Republican around.” Then in 2014, he posted on social media, “The LGBT community has become nothing more than a group of constitutional terrorists” — not LGBT activists but the community as a whole.
Walsh campaigned for Kamala Harris in key swing states. Harris wasn’t expected to repudiate him for his past statements. It turns out that apology was enough. Maybe the “big tent” will eventually welcome a “redeemed” Piker, along with Walsh.
Thanks for bringing the facts about Walsh. He’s an opportunist and should not be trusted. He’ll disavow the Democratic Party as soon as he thinks it’s safe to be a Republican or worse, a Libertarian/Independent.
I've heard more about liberals bashing Piker than I have of Piker himself. I can't imagine anything he ever said was worse than the things that come out of trump's mouth.