Rep. Ilhan Omar, 42, joked with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker about media attention during a backstage livestream Monday before their joint appearance in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Democrat made the quip during Piker’s broadcast of their green-room conversation ahead of an event hosted by socialist state lawmaker Omar Fateh. “I feel like the media has a tendency, you know, to highlight everything that you do,” Piker told Omar during their exchange. “Some of the things that I do, like – we’re just normal Americans trying to go about our day-to-day and trying to organize against the Trump administration in the same way that, you know, white people are doing in general.”
“We just look really good on their screens,” Omar responded.
The gathering served as the inaugural episode of Fateh’s “I’m The Host Now!” series. Fateh, a Somali-American state representative, shares ethnic roots with Omar, who was born in Somalia.
Republicans and Jewish groups swiftly condemned the pairing. John Nagel, Omar’s GOP opponent in her upcoming midterm race, vented his outrage on X. “Ilhan Omar knows exactly who Hasan Piker is and what he has said,” he wrote.
Nagel spotlighted Piker’s past remarks, including his declared belief that “America deserved 9/11” and that he’d vote for Hamas over Israel “every single time.” He framed the event as something far more sinister than political outreach. “This is not outreach. It is the normalization of antisemitism, support for terrorists and contempt for America,” Nagel argued.
He pressed prominent state Democrats to distance themselves from the appearance. “Peggy Flanagan, Keith Ellison and every Minnesota Democrat must answer: Do they stand with Jewish Minnesotans, or with Ilhan Omar and Hasan Piker?” he said.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas issued a forceful statement expressing its disgust. “Elevating someone with a longstanding record of antisemitic and hateful rhetoric is a betrayal of Jewish Minnesotans and harmful to the broader public,” the group said.
“Piker’s rhetoric dehumanizes Jews and shifts responsibility for antisemitic violence onto its potential victims,” the JCRC continued. “It deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone who claims to oppose bigotry and antisemitism.”
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Lisa Demuth expressed astonishment that “Democrat leaders invited a vile anti-American left-wing radical to Minnesota … a week before the election.” She characterized the timing as politically toxic for her opponents. “This is the Democrats closing message to voters,” Demuth said in a statement.
Omar has faced repeated scrutiny over her associations and remarks throughout her congressional career, with critics frequently accusing her of antisemitic rhetoric and insufficient disavowals of extremism. The Trump administration previously targeted her for investigation alongside other progressive lawmakers, intensifying her polarized national profile.
Piker, a former Young Turks host turned Twitch streamer, has built a massive following through provocative political commentary that regularly generates controversy. His past statements about 9/11 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have drawn particular fire from conservative and pro-Israel critics, who cite them as evidence of radical sympathies unfit for mainstream political platforms.
Neither Omar nor Piker addressed the mounting criticism directly in the immediate aftermath of Monday’s event, and no prominent Minnesota Democrats had publicly responded to Nagel’s challenge as of early Tuesday.