Rep. Jake Auchincloss went on Fox News over the weekend to insist Democrats are the party of “free enterprise, free minds, freedom from fear, and free elections.” The only problem: roughly 48 hours earlier, the party’s biggest streaming ally was caught displaying a framed 9/11 front page as a decoration in his studio.
The congressman’s comments, made during an interview with Shannon Bream, came as a growing number of Democrats grapple with the party’s relationship to left-wing streamer Hasan Piker — a rift that some analysts say is threatening to tear the party apart ahead of November’s midterm elections.
A Party Divided Over Its Biggest Streaming Voice
Fox News reporting from this month confirms Piker has prominently displayed the New York Times’ Sept. 12, 2001 edition — the “U.S. Attacked” issue — on camera during his livestreams, describing it to his audience as “the cutie Cinderella newspaper from 9/11.” The framing of the deadliest terror attack in American history as a keepsake has drawn sharp rebukes, but the backlash has done little to deter Democratic leaders from cozying up to the influencer.
Piker has told CNN there is a “0% chance” the 2028 Democratic nominee will be pro-Israel, expressing confidence his party is drifting in his direction. Rep. Ro Khanna has publicly refused to apologize for appearing on Piker’s show, warning that distancing would signal “weakness.” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to insist “the party isn’t lurching too far left,” even as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told Meet the Press he cares about “reaching Piker’s audience” rather than addressing Piker’s comments about the terror attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
Fetterman Breaks Ranks
Sen. John Fetterman, meanwhile, has cited “moral clarity” as the reason he’s drifting from his own party, specifically calling out colleagues willing to “unify with people who are willing to embrace people that love Hamas or that think America deserved 9/11.” Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly too spooked by a potential primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to offer a clean answer on the matter.
Auchincloss’s claim that the party “does not stand for what Hasan Piker stands for” rings hollow, critics argue, when so much of the party’s leadership keeps appearing on his show, at his rallies, and in his replies.
The Old American Dream Is the New One
Auchincloss also pitched a vision of “a new American dream” where hard work and fair play deliver an education by 18, a home by 30, and a dignified retirement by 65. But as noted by PJ Media’s Eric Florack, that’s really the old American dream — one an entire generation can no longer reach, in no small part because of policies pushed by establishment Democrats over the past six decades.
Young people can’t afford homes largely because Democrat-controlled cities and states have stacked regulations, zoning restrictions, and tax burdens on housing supply, Florack argues. And while Democrats have pushed a “weaker version of socialism” compared to the Democratic Socialists of America for 60 years, the DSA’s answer to failure is to go full socialist — a move that may not win over mainstream voters but could split the left into manageable pieces for Republicans.
A Split That Could Cost Elections
With recent elections running nearly 50/50, losing a significant portion of that vote to the DSA would hurt both factions of the left. Roughly 4.5 million voters have already left the Democratic Party, according to registration shifts noted in earlier columns. That’s a split that will be felt in November.
“The Democrats are in a trap of their own making,” Florack writes. “Auchincloss’s flailing about like a hooked fish only confirms this in my mind.”
The party faces a fundamental question: embrace the left-wing base that Piker represents and risk losing mainstream voters, or distance from him and risk alienating the young activists who helped power recent victories. Either path appears to lead to a divided party — and a tough road ahead.
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/eric-florack/2026/08/24/the-democrats-are-in-a-trap-of-their-own-making-n4956473
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