Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: How do you solve a problem like Piker

How do you solve a problem like Piker

Aug 25, 2026

By Adam Wren, Dasha Burns and Will Steakin

Presented by

With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner

Good Tuesday morning. We’re 70 days away from the midterms, which are hurtling toward us faster than an Indy Car down Pennsylvania Avenue. Get in touch and let’s get right to it.

In today’s Playbook …

— Abdul El-Sayed’s relationship with Hasan Piker threatens Democratic unity in Michigan.

— It’s showdown day in South Carolina for Darline Graham and Ralph Norman.

— The Boldfaces: Mike Rogers, Haley Stevens, Hillary Scholten, Vivek Ramaswamy, Amy Acton, Jeff Yass, Kathy Hochul, Zohran Mamdani, Robert White and more.

DRIVING THE DAY

FRIENDS LIKE THESE: Abdul El-Sayed’s hugging of Hasan Piker is threatening to derail his attempts to unify Democrats around his Senate campaign.

His statement yesterday on the controversial left-wing Twitch streamer with whom he’s campaigned only exacerbated tensions around a comment Piker made last week suggesting American Jews invite violence by supporting Israel.

“This was a day where he had to be on the defensive, and where Mike Rogers won the day, and that's not good,” said Tré Easton, VP for public policy at Searchlight Institute, the Democratic think tank aimed at pushing the party toward broadly popular positions.

“You have a finite amount of days in campaigns, and any day you're not on your message and on the offensive, you're losing,” Easton said, adding that El-Sayed’s statement was “half-hearted.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten — who said on X that Piker is “hurting the chances of a Democratic majority in November” — told people she won’t put her name on campaign literature with El-Sayed, doesn't want to be part of the unified campaign and won’t contribute to its cost, two senior Michigan Democrats briefed on the conversation told Playbook. She joins state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who’s running for Michigan’s 11th District and was at the center of Piker’s recent comments, in declining to endorse El-Sayed.

“I have long said I will not campaign with someone who continues to associate with Hasan Piker,” Scholten told Playbook. “Today, Abdul El-Sayed had a prime opportunity to cut ties with Piker and directly disavow his words, but he did not. There is a lot of work left to do to unite the party.”

Rep. Haley Stevens, in two statements totaling 1,046 words texted to Playbook, said she’s “encouraged that my future congressman Jeremy Moss and future Senator Abdul El-Sayed appear to be in an open and productive dialogue with one another.” But she also had strong words for Piker, whom she criticized during the primary.

“Piker will not be an elected office holder for Michigan or anywhere else in the country and therefore candidates and elected officials should stop engaging this demagogy [sic] and dysfunction,” she said. “This radio man should stop sowing division and hate in Michigan and let our election occur without his continued commentary and involvement.”

“I call on everyone to get the fuck off of social media. Even for 24 hours,” added Stevens, who’s on vacation in Italy.

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El-Sayed’s statement didn’t solve his larger problem. Piker acknowledged on his livestream the statement “doesn't make anybody happy,” and in a raucous interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters last night, El-Sayed invoked Piker’s name, saying his GOP opponent Rogers “thinks he's running against Hasan Piker.”

Lon Johnson, the former Michigan Democratic Party chair, said the “statement is a continuation of contextualizing intimidation and violence. It’s not enough for someone who won a primary by only 14,000 votes that seeks to beat a candidate that lost the last Senate election by 19,000 votes.”

Democrats worry that Rogers, who’s reached out to Democrats to join his coalition, is outflanking the Democratic nominee — and they fret El-Sayed’s stubbornness keeps him from the elasticity he needs to more fully pivot to the general election.

As Piker put it: “There are going to be a lot of people who are already questioning Abdul El-Sayed's sincerity on these issues that will then turn around and say, ‘he’s moderating his position on Israel!’ I don't think he is.”

“We’re seeing attempts by Mike Rogers to actively pursue sore points within our community — and he's doing it faster than Abdul,” Johnson told Playbook.

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THE DOWNLOAD

SOUTH CAROLINA SHOWDOWN: It’s runoff day in South Carolina, where Trump will face yet another test of the strength of his endorsement as Sen. Darline Graham faces off against Rep. Ralph Norman for the state’s GOP Senate nomination. Trump has done more for Graham than many battleground Republicans — and if she fails, it would be his most embarrassing loss of the cycle. Read more from POLITICO’s Alec Hernandez and Aaron Pellish

By the numbers: Outside groups have put more than $6 million behind Graham, and Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC spent more than $827,000 on text messages and phone calls for Graham, one of the PAC’s largest expenditures yet this cycle. On the other side, Nikki Haley and her aligned groups are Norman’s biggest backers, spending more than $700,000 for the congressman.

IN THE SOONER STATE: Oklahoma also holds its primary runoff today, and all eyes will be on the gubernatorial contest, where AG Gentner Drummond is facing off against former state Sen. Mike Mazzei. You guessed it: it’s another test of Trump’s endorsement. Drummond narrowly beat Mazzei in the June primary, but Mazzei has Trump’s backing and has spent big.

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THE FRONT PAGE

BUCKEYE BLITZ: VPAC, a super PAC allied with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is continuing its streak of negative ads against Democrat Amy Acton with an ad called “Acted” that's part of an eight-figure statewide broadcast and digital buy, which will include opening weekend of NFL and college football. It's the fifth ad VPAC has run since the start of the summer criticizing Acton’s medical background and record on Covid. Watch the ad

Republican megadonor Jeff Yass injected the group with a fresh eight-figure donation of cash, adding on to the tens of millions it’s raised this cycle from Yass and Elon Musk, according to a person familiar with the details.

A NEW YORK MINUTE: Kathy Hochul in an exclusive interview with POLITICO’s Nick Reisman predicted that NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani would “be helpful” in her reelection bid this year. The Democratic New York governor is under pressure to overperform in November against her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in order to turn out Democratic voters to support down-ballot candidates in battleground races.

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Trump’s threats of an all-out trade war with Canada are leaving out one major factor: While the U.S. has the economic strength to endure a sustained conflict, Americans may have far less political will than their northern neighbors to tolerate one, POLITICO’s Daniel Desrochers and colleagues report. Polls show Canadians will face the economic impacts to stand up to the U.S. government. The opposite is true of Americans.

THE NEXT LEFT: The grassroots action group Swing Left is expanding its midterms map, adding 11 new House targets, three new Senate targets and two governor’s races to the “must-flip” and “must-hold” categories, Playbook’s Ali Bianco reports. They’re expanding into races that Dems haven’t considered as competitive until this year.

Among the adds: Swing Left is betting that even with redistricting, Dems can hold Florida’s 9th, 14th and 25th. They’re also ramping up efforts in Ohio GOP Rep. Max Miller’s 7th District. And among their top targets to flip or hold are North Carolina’s 1st and 11th, Texas’ 15th and 35th, and both the Texas and Iowa Senate races. Why now? Tariffs and the Iran war, they argue, are putting a bigger map into play. The full list

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5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. YOU’VE GOT MAIL: The Supreme Court last night allowed Trump’s restrictions on mail-in voting to proceed for now, but left uncertain whether those restrictions were legal or could be used in this year’s midterms, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. The 6-3 ruling comes as the president has sought to quietly solidify control of the USPS, filing four nominations for vacancies on the Board of Governors, three of whom have expressed doubt about election security and the outcome of the 2020 election, NYT’s Zolan Kanno-Youngs and colleagues report.

2. IMMIGRATION FILES: The State Department is expected to soon revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 people seeking asylum in the U.S., AP’s Matthew Lee reports. It’s a sharp escalation of Trump’s mass deportation agenda and the latest example of the Trump administration taking aim at legal immigration. It’s likely to face swift legal challenges.

3. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: Trump is turning up the dials on another trade war as he considers whether to levy a new 7.5 percent tariff on China, which the administration argues is to punish the country for flooding the global market with underpriced goods, AP’s Aamer Madhani reports. The move, which has not yet been finalized, appears designed to work around the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year slapping down Trump’s global tariff regime.

4. MADAM SECRETARY? The U.N. may, for the first time in its history, select a woman as its secretary general — but the Trump administration, which has veto power, will have to approve her first, WaPo’s Karen DeYoung reports. Trump has reportedly favored controversial FIFA President Gianni Infantino for the post. Any candidate with Trump’s backing would likely have to be aligned with his goal of cutting the budget and workforce of the body they would lead.

5. WHAT THE FLOCK: Are Flock cameras the new data centers? WSJ’s Kris Maher reports that the AI surveillance devices are emerging as the newest political wedge, drawing bipartisan backlash nationwide.

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TALK OF THE TOWN

HOME RULES — Robert White, the presumptive next D.C. delegate, unveiled an effort to mobilize District residents who support Washington’s autonomy, AP’s Matt Brown and Gary Fields report. White said he would also launch a PAC to support candidates who back D.C. statehood.

DEVELOPER IN CHIEF — “Trump moves to reshape White House’s South Lawn,” by WaPo’s Dan Diamond: “Construction crews, which have been working round-the-clock to complete the helipad project before Chinese President Xi [Jinping’s] planned state visit next month, have torn up much of the White House’s South Lawn and are working to raise its level, according to photographs of the site and two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe planned construction.”

TRANSITIONS — William Jay is joining Paul Weiss as litigation partner and head of the Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice. He previously worked at Goodwin Procter. … Audrey Cook joined the DOJ this week as press secretary. She most recently served as comms director for Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). … Liz Natonski is now deputy staff director for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Janelle DiLuccia, previously senior policy adviser for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), is now energy policy director. …

… Maggie Waldrop is now special assistant for media relations at HHS. She most recently was press secretary for Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.). … Eliana Locke joined Marathon Strategies as account director for comms and public affairs. She was previously comms director for Rep. Derek Tran (D-Calif). … Dan Grainger is now director of advocacy fundraising at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. He most recently was manager of political programs and operations at Cencora.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Emily Wilkins, a D.C. correspondent for CNBC, and John Sanders, an SVP at Blackstone, on July 31 welcomed Francis Anthony Sanders, named after the patron saint of journalists, St. Francis de Sales. Pic ... Another pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) … Michael Cohen … Siemens’ Ryan Dalton … Elsa Walsh … Ben Dietderich of the Energy Department … Jamie Jackson … Zach Cikanek and Leigh Claffey Brown of Plus Communications … Will Stiers of Rep. Mike Rogers’ (R-Ala.) office … Sara Sendek … John Lin of House Energy and Commerce … Neal Rothschild … Eli Lilly’s Antoinette Forbes … Mike Burns … NBC’s Monica Alba … Jeff Choudhry … POLITICO’s Gary Fineout and John Tedder … Amanda Farnan … Daniel Barash of SKDK … Dave Hoppe … Chris Kaumo of Synchronicity Strategies … PwC’s Michael O’Brien … Mary Monica Palmer … former Reps. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), John Faso (R-N.Y.) and Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) … Avery Jaffe … former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal … Ashley Inman … Emerson Collective’s Britt Carmon

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