The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children says attacks on the left-wing influencer distract from a genuine rise in progressive politics, as his past remarks about 9/11 feature in a Michigan Senate race.
Ashley St Clair, 28, has defended the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, describing the backlash against him as “hysteria”. In an interview with CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, she argued that criticism of Piker, 35, distracts from a wider rise in progressive politics. Piker has been the subject of Republican attack advertising in Michigan’s Senate race over remarks he made in 2019 about the September 11 attacks, for which he later apologised.
St Clair’s defence
Ms St Clair, who shares a one-year-old son, Romulus, with the Tesla founder, said: “There’s all his Hasan hysteria right now.” She went on: “Any of these news outlets that are feeding into the Hasan hysteria are playing into a right-wing psy-op to conflate Hasan with the figurehead of the left, and then use him as this smear campaign against what is a very real rise in progressive politics and democratic socialism.”
She said she thought it was a waste of time to focus on influencers because they hold no institutional power. “Don’t you kind of see the problem here is that everyone we’ve spoken about is like podcast and streamers and the onus is not on any politician who’s actually doing anything,” she told Mr O’Sullivan.
She also criticised pressure on Democratic candidates to distance themselves from him. “I think the way that people have badgered these Democrat candidates who are doing a lot of good about Hasan and asking them to denounce him is ridiculous,” she said. “I think it’s a waste of time.”
Ms St Clair split from Mr Musk in a high-profile separation and is now suing X.
Who is Hasan Piker?
Piker is a self-identified Marxist and democratic socialist with more than three million followers on Twitch and nearly two million subscribers on YouTube and Instagram. He has campaigned for or interviewed at least a dozen Democratic figures running for Congress, among them Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
His comments in a 2019 livestream, including that America “deserved” the September 11 attacks, have made him a political lightning rod. He later apologised for his wording, describing it as inappropriate and an attempt at satire. He has continued to defend his broader arguments about the consequences of US foreign policy, while critics say this does not adequately address his original remark.
The Michigan Senate race
The controversy has become part of the contest for a Michigan Senate seat ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Mr El-Sayed, 41, is running against Mike Rogers, 63, who is endorsed by Donald Trump. An advertisement released in September used footage of Piker’s 2019 remarks to criticise Mr El-Sayed over his relationship with the streamer. Reports indicate that Republican-aligned groups have spent millions on advertising featuring Piker’s comments or his association with Mr El-Sayed.
Mr El-Sayed has defended the relationship. He has said he disagrees with some of Piker’s more radical statements about terrorism, but believes Piker’s audience is important to reach. He has argued that a political streamer should not automatically be treated as representative of a candidate or of an entire political movement. Piker, for his part, has argued that Mr El-Sayed risks making a mistake by distancing himself as the controversy grows.
Barred from the UK
Piker was also blocked from entering the UK in June 2026. The Home Office barred him and fellow US commentator Cenk Uygur from travelling to the country ahead of planned appearances in London and Oxford. The Government said their presence would not be conducive to the public good, but did not publicly specify its grounds.
