I love your fantasy version of me! It’s always interesting to see how others fantasize about me. Sometimes a bit disturbing too, but I can handle it. Thanks!
Do you think that’s the only reason to criticize Mamdani, or do you think that the fact that he campaigned with someone who said that America deserved 9/11 is in fact worthy of criticism? I honestly can’t tell what you think at this point.
How are those two statements at all contradictory? Yes, they weren’t on a stage at the same time, but they were at events together, and Piker campaigned for Mamdani (and El Sayed).
Are we gonna start applying that standard to politicians we don’t like, too?
Googling, I can’t find any evidence that they ever “campaigned together”, although Piker certainly did actively campaign for Mamdani. He also had him as a guest on his podcast once, and was in the audience at one of his rallies and attended his election night celebration, both of which were open t. So, they’re joined at the hip, basically. 
After learning of Mamdani’s victory, Piker can be seen looking directly at the camera, and sarcastically taunting Cuomo, saying, “Hey, what happened? I thought that ‘9/11. Hasan … Hasan loves 9/11.’ What happened? What happened? I thought that was a successful campaign strategy.” Piker went on to make a series of lewd remarks, using expletives to refer to and address former Governor Cuomo.
Yes, at least, i have consistently held that standard. If Mamdani is paying Piker to show up, that says something about Mamdani. But if Piker is off in his own and says he likes Mamdani, well, you might ask why, but there are often reasons for bad people to like good politicians.
I’ve supported politicians who were photographed with nobodies who turned out to be awful, too. Because it’s sometimes the job of politicians to pose with strangers.
I want Babale to give some evidence that Mamdani is reaching out to Piker before i give a shit.
I mean, Barak Obama and Jeremiah Wright never shared a campaign stage, but there was certainly some political clean-up required: Jeremiah Wright controversy - Wikipedia
Yes, because even then we were living in the stupid timeline.
Let me rephrase that. There are politicians i intensely disliked who had done that. But i didn’t think the photograph itself was evidence against them, because that’s just part of their job. I disliked them for the policies and their votes, not for the people who wanted a part of them.
A photo is one thing. A sit-down and podcast is another.
Politicians climb in bed with people they want to later forget all the time. It’s how the game is played. Everybody knows.
It just seems dishonest to pretend like it didn’t happen, it was just that one time, and it meant nothing. Especially by those who weren’t even included in the tryst.
JFC. Get over yourself. FFS. 
But I’m so awesome! How could I get over someone so awesome?
I feel like I am being gaslit. Maybe that’s not your intention, but that’s definitely how it feels.
Can we even agree that campaigning with someone who said that America deserved 9/11 is in fact worthy or criticism?
Here’s an article about the role Hasan played in a number of democratic campaigns.
Emphasis mine.
Not only has Mamdani not denied this, we now know he and his staff use Signal to communicate with influencers off the record:
I blame the parents.
Is it? Should politicians only appear on podcasts of people they agree with 100%? Should they only take interviews with friendly interviewers?
That very much depends on what you mean by “campaigning with”.
And it also depends when and if the someone walked back that statement, and depends a little on exactly what his claim was.
I worked for 6 years in the shadow of the WTC. Half my family was in NYC during 9/11. A woman i worked with was killed when the first tower collapsed. (She’d made it to the ground floor, but stayed to help the wounded.) My brother watched his office, close enough to the towers to be ignited from the heat, burn in real time, on TV. A lot of his coworkers were killed. He and his then-wife spent the next two weeks attending funerals. My cousin saw the planes hit the tower, through the window of the conference room he was with. They were shocked, but didn’t cancel the meeting after the first one. After the second they evacuated. I spent the day on the Internet, tracking down friends who worked in the towers. (Most turned out to be at an actuarial event in New Orleans. But I’ve never before or since been more relieved to see a banal post from a friend online.)
Yes, it was a horrible thing. Yes, the people who committed that act were evil. And also, the details matter.
No and no. That’s a ridiculous standard to hold politicians to.
Mamdani critics being totally not racist:
A Republican member of the New York City Council claimed she and other critics of Mayor Zohran Mamdani aren’t “racists” for wanting Mamdani to stay away from Friday’s 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Meanwhile, in responding to socialist influencer Hasan Piker’s claim that not wanting Mamdani at the somber ceremony is a “demented racist viewpoint,” Councilwoman Vickie Paladino urged the New Jersey-born Piker to “go back to where you came from.”
No, they should appear on adversarial podcasts to have adversarial conversations and friendly podcasts to have friendly conversations.
What worries me is when they have a friendly conversation with someone I consider adversarial.
Not at all. I think I’m saying the opposite.
I don’t know whether Mamdani asked for Piker’s endorsement, or simply had a friendly chat with him, thought nothing of it and later wanted to distance himself. It doesn’t matter to me either way.
It’s a thing that happened.
No, I really don’t think it does.
If you asked me where it would be appropriate to campaign with someone who says that black people deserved slavery, I wouldn’t hem and haw and hedge my language and pontificate about it with a giant wall of text. I’d say that it’s absolutely not appropriate to campaign with them.
Saying that America deserved 9/11 is not quite the same thing, but it’s in the same ballpark for sure.
And I think in a vacuum you probably agree, which is why this conversation feels so gaslighty.