El-Sayed distances from Piker amid high-stakes Senate race

Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is taking steps to distance his Senate campaign from far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who’s facing blowback for suggesting that American Jews’ support for Israel could make antisemitism worse.  El-Sayed, who faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.) this fall in a must-win Senate race, had raised the hackles of some fellow Democrats for his campaign trail appearances with Piker, who’s pushed further into the national spotlight as progressive candidates court his massive, young audience.  But Piker’s latest comments, which add to a string of controversial remarks, are putting El-Sayed on defense in the critical battleground, prompting the Democrat to stress that “nobody” outside his team speaks for the Senate campaign.  Some Democrats, however, were annoyed by the distraction in such a critical time in the race, when El-Sayed needs to be appealing to a wide swath of voters. “It’s just off message,” said Democratic strategist Steve Schale. “Besides being reprehensible in their own right, El-Sayed has to spend valuable campaign time reacting to Piker’s incendiary comments instead of talking about how to make things cost less and other issues Michigan voters care about. “There’s no world where Hasan Piker’s comments are anything but a net negative for any candidate trying to get 50 plus 1 in a battleground race.”  Other strategists agree, making the case that the comments could hurt him with the electorate…