A Fake Lynching Clip, a Defamation Threat, and a Congressional Candidate on His Knees: Today's Hasan Piker Receipt Pile

Darlings, we have been keeping receipts on Hasan Piker for two weeks straight, and August 14 decided to add three more tabs to the folder. Let us go through them in order of chaos.

1. The fake lynching clip. A video allegedly showing Piker saying America should resume lynching Black people spread across right-wing accounts this week. Both Snopes and Yahoo News independently fact-checked the clip and concluded it was, per their reporting, dishonestly edited to remove the context in which Piker was criticizing racists, not endorsing them. A moment. Someone cut a clip, stripped the sarcasm, and posted it as though that was going to stick. It did not stick. Reuters already fact-checked the 9/11 misattribution last week and now Snopes is doing cleanup on a second fabricated outrage. The audacity of the editing suite.
2. The Scott Jennings defamation situation. Per the Times of India, CNN analyst Scott Jennings has allegedly made a defamation claim in connection with Piker. Piker, according to the same report, called the claim an "egregious lie." The details of what Jennings is alleging and whether any formal legal action has been filed were not confirmed by the outlet. Darling, that is not a denial from either side, that is two very online men in a very public argument that a lawyer may eventually have to resolve. We will be here.
3. The tossup-district tape. The Free Beacon reported that a Democratic nominee running in what it describes as a tossup House race was caught on tape calling Piker "the man" and, per the outlet's characterization, "groveling" for a slot on his show. The Free Beacon is not a neutral source on this subject, but the existence of the tape itself is the scoreboard entry here. If this feels familiar, it's because the New York Post already surfaced a swing-district Michigan candidate with Piker praise on the record two days ago. That was embarrassing for that candidate. This tape is apparently more embarrassing for this one. Two in two days.
4. The Gutfeld contribution to the discourse. Greg Gutfeld, per TheWrap, argued on Fox that Piker is only "Democrat Hot" and rates a "Republican 3" at best. We are including this because it is genuinely the least harmful thing anyone has said about Piker in two weeks and also because it will absolutely be the clip he plays on stream tonight while his chat goes insane.

The Vox piece landing today frames all of this as Piker "not retreating" after Wisconsin. We wish him strength in this trying time of his own making. The fake clip getting debunked helps him. The defamation dispute is unresolved. The tossup-race tape helps him with his base and hands opposition researchers a gift. Same journey, new chapter.

My loves, at this rate the receipts are printing faster than we can file them. Bet on a Gutfeld clip reaction stream by 9 p.m. Eastern.