Effie Phillips Staley is defending her meeting with left-wing broadcaster Hasan Piker amid a backlash from Democratic county seats who criticized her for stopping antisemitic speech.
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A progressive Democrat vying for a swing New York seat in November's midterm elections is defending his alliance with far-left broadcaster Hasan Piker.
Effie Phillips-Staley is facing fire from her party as she seeks nomination to replace Rep. Mike Lawler, RN.Y., after Piker went public in late March and called Israel an “apartheid state” and accused the Jewish nation of genocide in Gaza.
The chairmen of the Democratic Alliance in the New York state Phillips-Staley ran to represent a joint statement criticizing Phillips-Staley for participating in “the establishment of antisemitic, racist and general misogynist speech.”
Despite intraparty criticism, the candidate doubled down. He told Fox News Digital that Piker, 34, provides a vehicle for Democrats to reach new voters.
Internet host Hasan Piker invited Democratic House candidate Effie Phillips-Staley to his live broadcast, which has nearly 3 million followers. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“While I don't agree with every word Hasan Piker has said, we are seeing a tremendous amount of platform engagement involving millions of young people in the Democratic process,” Phillips-Staley said.
“As Democrats, our job is to build bridges, not burn them,” he added in a statement to Fox News Digital. “We must invite new people to this process by building a coalition that focuses on a united humanity. I will always fight for the rights of people around the world, and the determination of Palestine while firmly resisting anti-Semitism.”
Piker once said “America deserved 9/11.” He characterized that comment as “inappropriate.”
The broadcaster has been widely criticized for calling some Orthodox Jews “born” and once described a listener who expressed disapproval of Israel's Oct. 7 Hamas in Israel “as a violent pig dog that thirsts for blood.” He denied it cases of antisemitism despite continuing to argue that Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel.
Phillips-Staley, endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party and Rep. Progressive Jamaal Bowman, DN.Y., strongly defended Piker's controversial comments. He pointed out that critics have taken some of his words out of context and that he is “on the right side of history” on issues affecting Israel and the Palestinian people, during an appearance in the office. The Left Hook podcast.
A spokesman for the campaign of Rep. Lawler criticized Phillips-Staley's defense of Piker.
“Embracing an antisemite who praises the 9/11 attacks and sympathizes with terrorists is no longer appropriate for the modern Democratic Party, and Effie Phillips-Staley is proving that in real time,” Ciro Riccardi told Fox News Digital. “Worse still, her Democratic opponents' refusal to call Effie out on outrageous behavior shows just how tough you need to be to win a Democratic primary today.”
“In the middle of the road voters should be careful and ask themselves who they really want to control the House,” he added, referring to House Democrats.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O'Toole also criticized Phillips-Staley's main opponents — former Biden national security chief Cait Conley and Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson — for not criticizing Phillips-Staley's live appearance on Piker.
Conley and Davidson have expressed support for Israel, with the former supported by the pro-Israel group, the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC.
Spokesmen for Davidson and Conley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic House candidate Effie Phillips-Staley defended her appearance on the controversial Hasan Piker's live broadcast. (Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
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Phillips-Staley is among a growing number of progressive Democrats who have embraced Piker ahead of November's midterm elections.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were interviewed by Piker on his show.
Piker recently with a title campaign event in early April for the election of Sen. Bernie Sanders' Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
But not all Democrats think the party's acceptance of Piker is a good idea.
A number of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Cory Booker, DN.J., distanced themselves from the far-left lobby, citing concerns about his past statements.
Phillips-Staley insists that her strong stance against Israel is the way to win the battleground state this November.
“Taking someone so close to Mike Lawler on this issue would be a real mistake if this is something that a lot of people in the Democratic Party want to be apart of,” Phillips-Staley told Piker, referring to Israel.
Only 13% of Democrats hold a a good vision of Israel compared to 57% who view the country negatively, according to a March NBC News poll. Among independents, just over 20% see Israel in a good state.
It's unclear whether Phillips-Staley's approach will work in the southern Hudson Valley seat, which is one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the country.
“I've taken a lot of … what I hope people see as an authentic and progressive platform focused on human rights and we're going to explore that here as well,” Phillips-Staley told the Breaking Points podcast.
Representative Mike Lawler, RN.Y., leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on July 15, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
Lawler successfully fended off a challenge from Rep. Mondaire Jones, DN.Y., 2024. Cook's non-partisan political report rates his re-election bid as “a toss-up.”
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The split between Israel is not the only area where Lawler and Phillips-Staley are at odds.
Lawler's campaign filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the Phillips-Staley campaign forged voter signatures on applications to qualify for the Empire State's June primary. The campaign submitted a number of affidavits from voters in the district who said they never put their names on the petitions filed by the Phillips-Staley campaign.
