IHIP News: Left MELTS DOWN Over Hasan Piker's Comments on Gavin Newsom! THIS Is Why We LOSE!

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the perceived internal divisions within the Democratic Party, particularly in light of leftist streamer Hasan Piker's critique of voting strategies, including his reluctance to endorse certain mainstream candidates like Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris. The highlights include the tensions between corporate and progressive Democrats, the implications of these divisions on electoral outcomes, and the urgent need for a constructive dialogue to effectively combat right-wing politics.

Key takeaways

• Democrats thrive on MAGA's blunders, but winning by default isn't a sustainable strategy.
• Leftists feel homeless in a two-party system that values corporate donors over grassroots support.
• Voting third-party reflects a painful realization: many see little difference between corporate Dems and GOP.
• Campaigns fail when they seek elusive centrist votes instead of energizing their base; it's a fool's errand.
• Kamala's missteps highlight a critical truth: perceived progressivism doesn't resonate with actual progressive voters.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Hassan Piker (Guest) · 9 min speaking
• Kylie (Guest) · 1 min speaking
• Unnamed Host (Host) · 12 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Amin Hassan, Kamal Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom, J.D. Vance
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Amin Hassan, Kamal Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom, Ben Shapiro
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Amin Hassan, Governor Gavin Newsom, Kamal Harris, Bernie Sanders
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Amin Hassan, Bernie Sanders
5. 20:00 – 22:02: Amin Hassan, Bernie Sanders

Notable quotes from "IHIP News: Left MELTS DOWN Over Hasan Piker's Comments on Gavin Newsom! THIS Is Why We LOSE!"

• Him a hypothetical question, Gavin Newsome or JD Vance. Gavin Newsome instead of going on Hassan's show, he has had Charlie Kirk on and he has had Ben Shapiro on. Gavin Newsome has in each case he seated progressive causes.

  about Governor Gavin Newsom · at 3:08

• Why isn't she courting the progressive side of the party?

  about Kamal Harris · at 5:15

• Let me tell you something. I agree with everything you say, but as a person who lived in a red state for 50 years, I would crawl through 10 ft of concrete to vote for Gavin…

  about J.D. Vance · at 6:44

• This is the most important conversation as far as Democrats winning moving forward. Hassan is saying, Look, Democrats are up against the couch. What are you going to do to motivate people to get up off their ass and go vote?

  about Amin Hassan · at 7:41

• And I'm interested in having this conversation with Hassan because what we voted for with Biden is we voted for a sober driver. We had a drunk driver with Trump and we needed a sober driver and Joe Biden was our sober driver and.

  about Joe Biden · at 8:42

• Cut off the video. And stay with me here. Here's all the liberals just bashing Hassan. This guy Tim, this is incredible when you think about it. If leftists like Hassan had…

  about Martin Tim · at 9:31

• Just intellectually dishonest because Assan has a record of standing up for trans people. And when Gavin Newsome did that with Charlie Kirk, that pain was felt through the…

  about Charlie Kirk · at 11:28

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Amin Hassan — Person · Referenced guest / conversation partner · 21 mentions · first at 0:49
  A leftist streamer whose refusal to endorse Kamala Harris and hypothetical third-party vote (vs. Newsom) anchors the episode’s argument about Democratic strategy, turnout, and progressive alienation.
• Kamal Harris — Person · Referenced political figure (Democratic candidate used as case study) · 7 mentions · first at 0:32
  Used as the central example of a Democratic campaign that, per the speaker, failed to mobilize progressives—especially via perceived centrism and association with figures like Liz Cheney.
• Governor Gavin Newsom — Person · Referenced political figure (hypothetical nominee / foil) · 10 mentions · first at 1:37
  Presented as a ‘corporate Democrat’ example; criticized for platforming right-wing figures and for positions/actions framed as conceding progressive causes (trans rights, ICE, Israel).
• Bernie Sanders — Person · Referenced political figure (movement touchstone) · 5 mentions · first at 4:33
  Invoked as the origin of a progressive movement/message that the speaker argues has aged well and should inform Democratic strategy and policy priorities.
  American politics. Bernie started beating this drum and his message in my opinion and I didn't vote for Bernie and I have recently said I regret that vote because I have been…
• J.D. Vance — Person · Referenced political figure (Republican foil in hypothetical) · 4 mentions · first at 1:33
  Used as the opposing option in a hypothetical election matchup to test ‘harm reduction’ voting vs. third-party protest voting.
• Ben Shapiro — Person · Referenced media/political figure (symbol of right-wing courting) · 4 mentions · first at 3:20
  Used as an example of right-wing figures being platformed/courted by Democrats (specifically Newsom), framed as alienating progressives and conceding issues like trans rights and ICE.
  Instead of going on Hassan's show, he has had Charlie Kirk on and he has had Ben Shapiro on. Gavin Newsome has in each case he seated progressive causes.
• Joe Biden — Person · Referenced political figure (prior ‘harm reduction’ example) · 2 mentions · first at 6:37
  Cited as an example of voting for a ‘sober driver’ to stop immediate harm, while still critiquing establishment decisions that allegedly contributed to conditions enabling Trumpism.
• Kevin Kylie — Person · Producer / off-camera collaborator · 3 mentions · first at 2:50
  Addressed directly to control playback and on-screen graphics (“pause that… pop up…”), indicating a production role in the segment.
  They're so liberal. So moving to the center is a fool's errand and is perceived as disingenuous. So Kylie, pop up or let's finish this clip and then I'll pop up some of the reactions.
• Charlie Kirk — Person · Referenced media/political figure (symbol of right-wing platforming) · 3 mentions · first at 3:14
  Cited as a right-wing figure Newsom platformed; used to support the claim that Newsom concedes on progressive issues and harms trust among marginalized groups (esp. trans community).
• Martin Tim — Person · Referenced social media critic · 1 mention · first at 9:35
  Represents the liberal online backlash framing leftists as enabling Republican victories; used as a foil for the speaker’s defense of Hassan’s critique.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 All right. Although the Democratic Party is winning right now, they're winning because MAGA is so horrible. They're polling historically historically low. And within the Democratic party, you have a couple of different sex. You have the corporate Democrats, the vote blue no matter who. And then you have real progressive Democrats who kind of feel homeless but end up voting with the Democrats because of harm reduction. And I have was the former and I'm morphing into the latter. After Kamla lost, I really started taking a look. Why are the Democrats losing to this man, this moronic fascist man? How are we losing? So, I had a conversation with leftist streamer Hassan and um Austin show on I've had it in New York City and a clip from our conversation is going viral all over Twitter and social media, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc. And this conversation to me is trying it appears that people online are trying to

1:11 shut this conversation down. And when somebody's trying to do that, then I think, oh, this is the conversation we absolutely need to have. And so, I'm going to play a little bit of it right now. Please do not back out of this video because to me, this is the most important conversation to be had within the political spaces right now for anybody that wants to fight fascism. Play the clip.

1:33 Disappointed in vote for JD Vance or Gavin Newsome. Well, I'd have to vote for Gavin Newsome, of course, 100%. I wouldn't blink. What about you, Hassan? I'd probably vote third party.

1:42 You would? Oh, yeah. I mean, I at that point it doesn't even matter like cuz my policy on this is is the same as like my refusal to endorse Kla Harris. Um, the reason why I did not endorse Kla Harris was because she did things that were not only unproductive but also unconscionable. Um, but and I still stand on that. I still talk about it all the time cuz people constantly bring it up. They're like, "You didn't sufficiently like promote Kla Harris. You're the reason why she lost." I'm like, "I am incapable. There is no singular force in this country that is capable of making or breaking an election. And if that was real, then it is the most idiotic thing not to listen to my demands. But everybody knows that that's not real, right? If I had this singular force to be able to make Kla Harris the president, then Kla Harris should be coming to me every day and being like, "Let me do a collab with you, please."

2:36 Right? That's not the case, of course, and they know it. That's why they didn't do it. But, um, the the campaigns are always responsible for whether or not they are able to win uh the crowds when

2:50 Okay, pause that right there, Kylie, and leave it up. So, what he's saying here, I think, is really true. Um, number one, when it came to when it comes to Gavin Newsome, for somebody like Hassan who has felt very homeless in the American two-party system, you have Gavin, I gave him a hypothetical question, Gavin Newsome or JD Vance. Gavin Newsome um instead of going on Hassan's uh show, he has had Charlie Kirk on and he has had uh Ben Shapiro on. Gavin Newsome has in each case he seated progressive causes. He seated trans rights and he seated um uh ICE to Ben Shapiro very easily. He's fumbled on Israel big time and he's a huge corporate donor. Um receives a lot of pack money and he has said that he will not tax billionaires. All of these things are very unpopular with Democrats at large, specifically with this group of people that feel homeless in the America two-party system. So from Hassan's perspective here, he's like,

3:55 I'm going to vote third party because he doesn't see any difference in uh the help for marginalized people. He sees one person that campaigns as slightly liberal yet takes all of the same money from these corporate packs. And so online, the liberals have completely wet the bed and they're going after Hassan uh two and a half years out from a general election. and are trying to pigeon hole him in that he's a terrible American and you know all of this could be his fault which is insane if we look at historically what's been happening in American politics. Bernie started beating this drum and his message in my opinion and I didn't vote for Bernie and I have recently said I regret that vote because I have been doing a lot of internal thinking and studying as to what are my politics because my politics have typically been my whole adult life I'm liberal and I vote with Democrats.

4:56 Well, the Democrats keep losing and so I started digging beneath that surface. Why are Democrats losing? Specifically during Kla Harris's campaign when she started trotting around with Liz Cheney, it really struck me like why is she trying to get these people to vote for her that will never ever vote for her? Why isn't she courting the progressive side of the party? And here's what's so critical in the last campaign. It's not that Trump grew his vote. It's that less people that typically vote Democrat turned out. So the Democratic party instead of courting the progressive side, they go and court the Ben Shapiro, the Liz Cheney, the Charlie Kirks, these elusive right-wingers that are never ever ever going to peel off and vote for a liberal. Because here's the thing, in middle America, everybody believes Kamla to be super progressive. The Hassans of the world are like, "No, she's a corporate den." Uh Gavin Newsome is a

6:01 corporate den. But in the uh psyche of the American public, they're like, "Oh, they're so liberal." So moving to the center is a fool's errand and is perceived as disingenuous. So Kylie, pop up or let's finish this clip and then I'll pop up some of the reactions.

6:18 You know, combat against the couch, not necessarily even against the Republican party, but usually you're fighting against the couch. people who just don't go out and vote. And for me, the way I see it is if the Democratic establishment makes this decision one more time, just as they did with Hillary Clinton, just as they did with Kla Harris,

6:37 and in some ways, just as they did with Joe Biden as well, which led to Trump, too,

6:42 then they just don't care. And there's not much I can do. Let me tell you something. I agree with everything you say, but as a person who lived in a red state for 50 years, I would crawl through 10 ft of concrete to vote for Gavin Newsome, even though I think he's duplicitous, a hypocrite, a thirst trap, hungry for power. All of the things that you say, and harms the Democratic party, and sets the psychological soil to be more prey to fascism. All of that I I agree with. But there are so many young queer, black, brown, marginalized people in red states. And even though this corporate Democrat is, you see it in a long-term game, in the short term game, a a President Nuome over President JD Van.

7:29 Okay, so that's the clip and that's where they cut it off that went viral. and Hassan was making the point to me and we're friends and so we're having a a political conversation and these conversations should not be shut down. This is the most important conversation as far as Democrats winning moving forward. Hassan is saying, "Look, Democrats are up against the couch. What are you going to do to motivate people to get up off their ass and go vote? Going and playing patty cake with uh Ben Shapiro is not going to do it. Playing patty cake with Liz Cheney is not going to do it. Um, taking Apac money is not going to do it. It's going to make people like Hassan and many, many others that feel homeless in the United States political two-party political system stay on the couch. And so, I think that's a really valid point. Now, I have this red state trauma of living in a red state for 50 years and seeing how

8:23 damaging Republican policies are. And so I will vote for these short-term solutions to mitigate so that a woman who has been raped can receive health care, can get an abortion because in Oklahoma right now she can't. And I'm interested in having this conversation with Hassan because what we voted for with Biden is we voted for a sober driver. We had a drunk driver with Trump and we needed a sober driver and Joe Joe Biden was our sober driver and Joe Biden did some good things. Um there was a lot of policies that he did that were were good but a lot of things he did continued and incubated fascism and it's a really important conversation we have to have. the Democratic party taking corporate money, giving blank checks to Israel um compromises them and then to the voters at large they go, "Well, there's really no difference in the two." And then you end up voting, you know, your uh preconceived

9:27 default settings of politics. And so here's what happens. That's where they cut off the video. And stay with me here. Here's all the liberals just bashing Hassan. This guy Tim, this is incredible when you think about it. If leftists like Hassan had their way, Republicans would be in charge from 2016 to 2032 at least. How is he even considered any sort of left? And what I would say to Tim here is what Hassan is saying is we need to build a party that has an FDR style impact that really really impacts the lives of people instead of this slowm moving incremental change that the current Democratic party always proposes and leaves so many people out in the pasture and incubates them to go vote for the uh change candidate. And in both 2016 and 2024, that changed candidate was Donald Trump.

10:22 When Kla Harris put herself with Liz Cheney, they rire of the two-party system establishment. And again, Donald Trump seemed like the disruptor. Uh go to the next one. Um this is the one that really popped up. Usurp the ch the chef says, "When asked if he'd vote for Gavin Newsome or JD Vance for president, Hassan said he'd vote third party. This proves Sissan doesn't care about any of the marginalized groups he pretends to support. All he cares about is taking money from them so he can buy more outfits for Stream. Okay. Um, usurp the Chef. This is intellectually dishonest completely from top to bottom. Gavin Newsome has proven that he doesn't care about uh trans people. Gavin Newsome has proven that he doesn't care about the illegal nature of what ICE is doing when he platform Ben Shapiro. And so to put the burden of this on Hassan who's saying I'm not going to settle for a fascist collaborator who always is

11:22 reaching to platform fascists and to find um common ground with them. It's just intellectually dishonest because Assan has a record of standing up for trans people. And when Gavin Newsome did that with Charlie Kirk, that pain was felt through the trans community far and wide. And Pete Buddha Judge did the same. And uh Rahm Emanuel came on my podcast and did the same. And so to say that Hassan doesn't care about marginalized groups is completely disingenuous because what he's saying is I'm not buying the lie that Gavin Newsome does. I'm not buying that anymore because each time I do or each time we do, it incubates a more and more fascist culture. Um, here's the part of the video that they cut out that I think uh provides incredible context for the remainder of our conversation. Pop this up, Kylie. Enthusiastically crawl through 10 ft of concrete for all of the marginalized people. Do you feel

12:26 like the Democrats know that and that's why they get away with their inept% that's why that's what I mean. So I'm like% I don't even

12:36 So Hassan clocked me right there and I'll own it because my politics are open-minded. They're not fixed. I don't play nanny nanny boooo politics that oh my god you said you wouldn't vote you would vote third party. Therefore you must be canceled. Number one Hassan's not a politician. Number two Hassan gets to think whatever he thinks. Number three, there is a large growing number of Americans in Gen Z and as millennials that have felt completely unseen and left behind by the two party political system who hate and despise how much they suck up to corporations who see the moral duplicity in a Haweim Jeff, a Gavin Newsome, a Chuck Schumer, a Corey Booker who take money from the MAGA corporate donors and also take it from them. And so when Hassan said that to me, do you think the Democrats know that and take your vote for granted? And I said 100%. He's right because they do because I have this red state trauma. So

13:37 I end up thinking, okay, I'm going to do a harm reduction vote. The reason why this conversation is so important, listener, is because we have time right now to have these conversations and to move our politicians to a progressive populist platform. We have the opportunity right now to rid ourselves via primaries of corporate Democrats who lie to us and use our votes and take advantage of our votes and our compassion for marginalized groups and use them to their advantage to then curry favor with corporations and then go make massive stock exchange uh trades while in Congress. Okay, continue with that clip.

14:21 even entertain that stuff, especially this far out from an election. But even in the primary season, that's immediately the conversation is like, well, whoever is the candidate, you're going to vote for them, right? And you know what's really indecent about that, too?

14:34 They never returned the favor for left flank candidates, cuz no one ever made hay about uh Bernie Sanders potentially becoming the candidate. and and all of the articles that came out about how Trump might be more preferable to Bernie Sanders cuz they were writing those liberals were writing those articles talking about how you know the head of Goldman Sachs who was like I'm a lifetime Democratic party voter I think uh you know Donald Trump is better than Bernie Sanders

15:02 I know so I just think this is a super important conversation to have and if you have people on the left that are shutting this down they are failing to do a proper autopsy. We know that Ken Martin at the DNC spiked the autopsy as to why we lost. He spiked it. I suspect that in that autopsy as to why Kamla lost is because the Democrats refuse to listen to voices like this. And I am willing to go into these conversations with Hassan and get owned. Do you think the Democrats know that you're always going to do that and take advantage of your vote? Yes, I do. I do think that anytime you have a political party or political movement that is shutting down this type of conversation when we lost two elections to a complete an incompetent con man and we can't have the conversation with the progressive flank of our party that Bernie Sanders created a movement and it continues to permeate through the Democratic party.

16:11 So much so that you see progressives winning right now. Zoron mom Donnie. And when you look at all of the issues that Zoron won on line item by line item by line item and you take them out of being progressive conservative Democrat Republican, they're all super popular policies. So this Democratic establishment that Hassan is speaking out so much against doesn't want they don't want people to know that. So, I have a really hard time with the liberals online right now trying to shut this conversation down and uh deny Hassan his opinion or browbeat Hassan from here to Timbuktu because he is pointing out some a conversation that we need to have. I think the the reason Kamla lost because nobody wanted to get off their couch that was super progressive because they feel like both parties are the same because they're not lazy corporate news voters that just take what takes what MSNBC says and takes what CNN says and then goes out

17:19 and votes. They have dug deeper. These are very high information voters that go now wait a minute Apac spent $200 something million dollars to get Trump elected. It's clear Benjamin Netanyahu wants him elected. Kamla is taking money from the same pack. Really isn't talking about this genocide and the blank check to Israel. I I I see this as a continuation as more of the same with with it being slightly rebranded. And I just think it's very MAGA-esque to shut down a conversation like that with Assan and me and to take a side on that and to not understand that Hassan and I were having a super important conversation that is in the should be front and center of every Democratic conversation right now as we head into into midterms. How do we build a majority party that services the most people without throwing any groups under the bus and doesn't prioritize servicing corporations?

18:22 And that's what he's saying. And I'm okay with us being at the end of the day that Hassan might be the person that sits on the couch and I might be the person that goes and votes for the corporate dim and I'm still evolving on that and I have to keep an open mind about it. But more than anything, Hassan and I are online personalities. We are not politicians and we both get to have our opinions about this and we get to succinctly disagree or push each other and evolve. But when I see liberals or people in the Democratic party trying to completely shut him down and shut down this conversation, it feels very cultist to me. It feels the opposite of what a progressive movement, a resistance, a resistant movement to fascism should be.

19:12 And then Kylie, put up the um tweet and the graph about where the Democrats are right now. Okay. Hassan says liberal Twitter has erupted, demanding party loyalty, hitting lesser evilism and harm reduction lines two years out from the presidential election, but they refuse to reckon with this historic unpopularity for the Dems as Trump is deeply unpop unpopular. Hold your electeds accountable, please. So, here we have the uh Democratic Party. The favorability is 33%. historic historic lows. And what Hassan is saying is, why do I, as a voter, why do this large voting group, why do we have to concede?

19:56 Why aren't the politicians conceding that corporations are not in the best interest of the people? And the people in the Democratic party that are trying to shut this down, all you're doing is giving his platform more power. Because when I see the Democratic establishment behave this way in a cult-like way to say that we can't have an honest conversation about this, it makes me really lean into what Hassan is saying and dive into it more and more because oftent times progressives are just they're right. They're just right way too early. And so if you think about where Bernie Sanders was in 2016, he was right. His message has aged far better.

20:34 I didn't buy it at the time. I thought, "Oh, Bernie's crazy. He nobody's going to he can't win an election. The fact of the matter is he probably would have beaten Trump. And where would we where would we be now if we would stop listening to corporate dems and the personalities that prop up this? We have to be a fixed party that preserves this two-party system and we cannot push our elected officials to service the American people more. So, I just wanted to respond to all of this and say that uh me as a voter and as an online commentator, I'm going to continue to have these conversations and the more the Democratic party tells people to shut up, the more I realize how rigged the whole thing is and then I end up going further and further left. Every Democratic politician should be shutting down corporate money. Every Democratic politician should be going on shows like mine and especially shows like Assange's

21:38 because that's where the people didn't show up because they are tired of being lied to by Democrats. All right, that's all I have. Like, subscribe, comment. Be back later with more news.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "IHIP News: Left MELTS DOWN Over Hasan Piker's Comments on Gavin Newsom! THIS Is Why We LOSE!"?

Hassan Piker (Guest), Kylie (Guest), Unnamed Host (Host).

What is "IHIP News: Left MELTS DOWN Over Hasan Piker's Comments on Gavin Newsom! THIS Is Why We LOSE!" about?

The discussion centers on the perceived internal divisions within the Democratic Party, particularly in light of leftist streamer Hasan Piker's critique of voting strategies, including his reluctance to endorse certain mainstream candidates like Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris. The highlights include the tensions between corporate and progressive Democrats, the implications of these divisions on…

What is mentioned in this I've Had It episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Amin Hassan, Kamal Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom, Bernie Sanders, J.D. Vance, Ben Shapiro. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "IHIP News: Left MELTS DOWN Over Hasan Piker's Comments on Gavin Newsom! THIS Is Why We LOSE!"?

The episode runs 22 min; the transcript is about 3,553 words in 30 timestamped sections.

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