The only reason why The Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller is an MS NOW analyst is because he and his Bulwark colleagues have portrayed themselves as the epitome of moral virtue for leaving the Republican Party in the aftermath of the political rise of Donald Trump. However, on Wednesday’s edition of The Moment with Katy Tur, Miller pleaded with Democrats to stop “infighting about random streamers,” by which he meant anti-Semitic 9/11 apologist and Mao fan, Hasan Piker.
Tur began by asking, “Tim, do you think Democrats are reaching out effectively, or are they battling their own demons?”
Miller began his response by stating, “I think it's a mixed bag. I think the one thing that Democrats are doing good is they're talking about affordability. I think some Democrats think that, like, saying the word “affordability” is like an amulet that allows them to kind of check the box. And I think that they're going to have to go a little bit further than that. You know, and I think that there's some who are doing that really well. Like we've mentioned, Talarico. I think even the center-left Democrats could learn a lot from Zohran. Like he doesn't talk about affordability, like it's an academic exercise. If you listen to his speeches and his content, he's usually giving, like, tangible examples of… people, you know, who are struggling and what he's going to do to help them.”
The Bulwark's Tim Miller thinks Democrats shouldn't reckon with Hasan Piker, "less infighting about random streamers as well" and "[El-Sayed's] got to also convince the kind of Bernie to Trump voters, like these are the types of people that he needs to win over to get over the… pic.twitter.com/VxHNKbCMOH
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 27, 2026
He then added, “I think the Democrats could do a little bit better on that… less infighting about random streamers as well. So, you know, there's a little room for growth, but they're doing pretty good.”
Piker is not just a random streamer. He is someone both El-Sayed and the media have tried to normalize. In El-Sayed’s case that meant campaigning with him and refusing to denounce him. In the media’s case it meant platforming him and giving him glowing profiles. Now that he has become politically toxic, they are now pretending they want nothing to do with him.
As it was, Tur wondered, “What does that mean?”
Miller responded that El-Sayed has to win over the “Bernie-to-Trump voters,” but that Democrats aren’t helping themselves, “I think that there's a lot of fighting back and forth between him and, like, this Michigan Congresswoman Hilary Scholten and others, you know, about whether he's too close to Hasan Piker or whether he's not distancing himself enough. And they're fighting back and forth. And, you know, he was on Jesse Watters this week, kind of like arguing about, you know, trans youth gender reassignment surgery. I'm not sure how helpful that is. So, you know, there can be a little bit of a—more of an eye on the ball in some of these races.”
For Miller, Trump was a bridge too far, but Piker is just a minor irritant that Democrats need to ignore to win back power. Unfortunately for him, that is not how politics works. El-Sayed and Michigan Democrats made their bed, and now they will have to lie in it.
Here is a transcript for the August 26 show:
MS NOW The Moment with Katy Tur
8/26/2026
3:21 PM ET
KATY TUR: Tim, do you think Democrats are reaching out effectively, or are they battling their own demons?
TIM MILLER: I think it's a mixed bag. I think the one thing that Democrats are doing good is they're talking about affordability. I think some Democrats think that, like, saying the word “affordability” is like an amulet that allows them to kind of check the box. And I think that they're going to have to go a little bit further than that. You know, and I think that there's some who are doing that really well. Like we've mentioned, Talarico. I think even the center-left Democrats could learn a lot from Zohran. Like he doesn't talk about affordability, like it's an academic exercise. If you listen to his speeches and his content, he's usually giving, like, tangible examples of cab drivers or—trucks, like people, you know, who are struggling and what he's going to do to help them.
I think the Democrats could do a little bit better on that, and they could probably do—to hair less infighting about random streamers as well. So, you know, there's a little room for growth, but they're doing pretty good.
TUR: Tell me about the hairless infighting about random streamers. What does that mean?
MILLER: I just you know, I mean the Michigan Senate race. Abdul El-Sayed, look, it's his job right now to go win over—Elissa Slotkin won in 2024, the senator, more of a centrist Democratic senator. She won. Kamala Harris lost on the same ballot. Sayed’s got to go convince those voters. And he's got to also convince the kind of Bernie-to-Trump voters, like these are the types of people that he needs to win over to get over the hump. And I think that there's a lot of fighting back and forth between him and, like, this Michigan Congresswoman Hilary Scholten and others, you know, about whether he's too close to Hasan Piker or whether he's not distancing himself enough. And they're fighting back and forth. And, you know, he was on Jesse Watters this week, kind of like arguing about, you know, trans youth gender reassignment surgery. I'm not sure how helpful that is. So, you know, there can be a little bit of a—more of an eye on the ball in some of these races.
