Spencer Pratt pounced on Hasan Piker after the streamer’s preferred Wisconsin candidate lost her primary, turning a socialist election flop into a communist joke.
Francesca Hong’s upset defeat in the Democrat primary for Wisconsin governor set off Piker, who blamed national media coverage for shaping the political ground against Democratic Socialist candidates.
Pratt gleefully took aim at Piker’s liberal outrage with a historical joke about communist China’s founding father.
“The DSA are freaking out that everyone is realizing Emperor Mao here has no clothes,” the reality TV star turned politician tweeted.
Beetlejuice Bob isn’t take the Hong loss well. The DSA are freaking out that everyone is realizing Emperor Mao here has no clothes. pic.twitter.com/7fy9yMWuZJ
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) August 12, 2026
“Beetlejuice Bob isn’t take the Hong loss well,” he added about Piker.
Piker had reason to take Hong’s loss personally. She appeared on his livestream for a campaign fundraiser before later telling “MS NOW Reports” in July that sharing a platform with someone did not mean she endorsed everything the host had said.
That relationship made Piker part of the story when Hong’s campaign collapsed.
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Piker tied the Wisconsin result to the Michigan Senate primary between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, arguing that major outlets had misled voters about candidates from the left.
“Wake up. Corporate media is fucking lying to you. That’s it. There was not a single f**king poll that showed that Haley Stevens was going to outperform Abdul El-Sayed in a matchup with Mike Rogers,” Piker said.
He accused several networks of repeatedly casting El-Sayed as too vulnerable in a general election because of his religion.
“That didn’t stop CNN, MS NOW, ABC, CBS from skipping a fucking beat every damn day of the week and saying, ‘No, Abdul’s going to lose to Mike Rogers. He’s too Muslim.’”
The Wisconsin race gave Pratt his opening because Hong had appeared well-positioned in some polling only weeks before the primary.
She had led by more than 20 points in some surveys, but Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly won after Gov. Tony Evers endorsed him.
Crowley had dropped out of the race before receiving Evers’ support.
Piker still insisted the result did not leave Democrats with their worst option for November.
“Crowley still, if he wins, is going to defeat Tom Tiffany. And that’s a good thing. OK, I stand on that,” Piker said, referring to Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany.
Rep. Ro Khanna, who endorsed Hong, argued after the loss that the Wisconsin candidate had been reduced to a handful of disputed positions.
“I appreciate that Democrats can have differences over single payer healthcare, free childcare, pausing data centers and other issues @FrancescaHongWI fought for,” the California Democrat wrote on X.
“But caricaturing and labeling candidates based on a few statements is not a politics I believe in.”
Republicans and some Democrats had targeted Hong over her previous support for defunding the police and a 2021 call to “cancel Thanksgiving.”
In July, Hong said she would not be able to defund the police as governor.
Khanna described Hong as a Korean immigrant’s daughter, a single mother and a restaurant owner who had to fight for political space.
“I have known Fran for years and remain proud to have supported her. She is a daughter of Korean immigrants, a single mother, a small business owner of a restaurant who struggled. As an Asian American, she had to fight for a seat at the table of our party and country. Nothing was handed to her,” he added.
He also rejected the kind of political branding he associated with President Donald Trump.
“I categorically reject the idea that the Democratic party must play the same name calling games as [President] Trump, reducing people’s identity to labels for political games,” Khanna wrote.
“This country cries out for moral leadership. We want to rise above division. Let us start to provide it,” he added.
Pratt’s insult landed in a wider fight over whether Piker helps or hurts the candidates who appear with him.
Piker’s 2019 Twitch remark that “America deserved 9/11” came back during his interview with Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo’s “We’re Not Kidding” podcast late last month.
Piker had made the comment during a live broadcast in August 2019 and walked it back two days later on “The Young Turks.”
“I said it in 2019, and you know if you listen to the full conversation, you very quickly understand what I’m talking about,” Piker told Hasan.
He said his wording had handed political opponents something to use against him.
“I should have phrased things better. I apologize for those who I have offended, but most importantly, apologize for giving an opportunity to the right to just like use this against me,” he later added.
Piker said that once the clip circulated online, he was all over Fox News and received an “unbelievable amount of death threats.”
“I’m a big boy. I can handle it. It is what it is,” he continued.
The El-Sayed campaign has also had to answer for Piker’s proximity.
Piker campaigned with El-Sayed, who is now the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s Senate race.
El-Sayed’s foreign policy views on the Middle East have been scrutinized as he raises strong opposition to campaigns and lobbying efforts backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Voters have questioned El-Sayed’s ties to Piker, and Republicans have used the relationship in attack ads.
Piker told Hasan that he still uses “pejoratives” to describe Israeli settlers and racial supremacist groups, but tries to avoid certain language when Israel is involved because of how it can be used politically.
“I still definitely utilize the term ‘inbred’ quite frequently when talking about religious and ethno-supremacist groups, but with the exception of anything that touches Israel, because I don’t want people to just like keep weaponizing that against you,” Piker said.
“I’ve called Republicans inbred hicks my whole life. I call, you know, Nazis inbred. I call them pigs. You know all these different things. I’ve gotten banned for this,” he continued.
Piker said the Anti-Defamation League’s efforts to block some of his offensive content had contributed to suspensions from social platforms and travel bans tied to his past remarks.
El-Sayed addressed the 9/11 remark Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” saying Piker had rejected it.
“It was a dumb statement,” El-Sayed stated.
“And, of course, I think Hasan, himself, would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it.”
After Hong’s loss, Piker warned that the next fight between the Democratic establishment and the socialist wing would be even rougher.
“It will be more difficult, though, because the establishment will not underestimate us. It will continue to undermine us, but they will not underestimate us,” Piker said. “So, the knives will be out.”