On Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said that while he likely wouldn’t campaign with Hasan Piker, “if someone feels like that’s a choice they want to make and they’re comfortable with it, they should do it.” And “if others want to, they can.”
After Subramanyam said that Democrats are a big tent, guest host Batya Ungar-Sargon asked, “Does that include Hasan Piker?”
Subramanyam responded, “I don’t know, is he running — I don’t think he’s running for anything, right?”
Ungar-Sargon followed up, “You mean tent just in terms of politicians, not in terms of influencers and –?”
Subramanyam answered, “Like I said, a big tent, so, I don’t agree with much of what he says, but, again, if he’s going to be supporting Democrats and Democratic values, enough of them, I think he is welcome to do so.”
Ungar-Sargon then asked, “So you wouldn’t feel uncomfortable saying Democrats should campaign with someone who thinks that they would vote for Hamas over Israel?”
Subramanyam answered, “It’s — that’s a terrible thing to say. But I would say that if someone feels like that’s a choice they want to make and they’re comfortable with it, they should do it. It’s a free country. I probably wouldn’t, though. But if others want to, they can.”
Earlier, Subramanyam said that he’s supporting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary.
In an earlier part of the interview, Ungar-Sargon asked, “You do see Democrats understanding, I think, that the abolish ICE discourse is toxic, that there’s a very healthy middle ground between, let’s say where President Trump is, if you don’t like mass deportations, and then the kind of far left abolish ICE side of things, that I see a lot of Democrats sort of trying to inhabit that space, yourself included, we’ve talked about this at great length. I just don’t see the same thing happening when it comes to Israel. It seems like there are very few Democrats willing to say, no, Israel is a great ally, I may have my differences with the current administration there, but, obviously, there should be two parties in America that are pro-Israel parties, do you disagree with me?”
Subramanyam answered, “No. And I think that some of the rhetoric I’m seeing, from the left and the right, concerns me, things like equating any action of Netanyahu to all Jewish people, for instance, some of the rising antisemitism I’m seeing in the country, it is concerning to me. And I’m just trying to remind some of my colleagues that it’s really important to understand the history of what’s gone on, the history of how Israel came about and how they’ve had to defend themselves from many other countries and why they’re our ally in the first place. With that said, I’m upset with Netanyahu and some of the things that he has done, and I am no fan of his, and so I think there’s definitely [concern] about the current leadership in Israel, but they are still our ally. And, right now, we’re in a joint operation with them in a war.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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