The Moral Bankruptcy of Ro Khanna
Khanna defended a man who celebrates the murder of the wealthy, even as he quietly runs one of the most profitable stock portfolios in Congress.
TL;DR
In a shameless effort to court the far-left, Khanna defended Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11 and celebrated a CEO’s assassination. But Khanna’s hypocrisy is staggering: his family’s stock trades outperform the S&P 500 by 112%.
On April 23, California Congressman Ro Khanna said that Hasan Piker, the most popular political streamer on Twitch, “deserves a second chance.”
This is the same Hasan Piker who claimed that “America deserved 9/11, dude. F**k it, I’m saying it.” He told Pod Save America “I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” He declared “It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7th.” He defended the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arguing that healthcare executives commit “social murder” through “the structural violence of poverty.”
Congressman Khanna, representing California’s wealthiest congressional district, invoked “the great philosopher Ted Lasso,” claiming we should “be curious, not judgmental.” His moral framework is a fictional TV character. That’s what Khanna offers in response to a man who, according to Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres’s letter to Twitch management, told followers to “kill” and “murder” people “in the streets.”
Khanna’s shameless attempt to court Hasan’s ultra-leftist base is rendered even more odious by his hypocrisy. He defends a man who said “let the streets soak in their red-capitalist blood” — but doesn’t mention that he’s running one of the most profitable stock portfolios in Congress.
The Man Who “Deserves a Second Chance”
Khanna frames all of this as “political disagreement,” lumping Piker’s incitement alongside undocumented immigrants who “work hard and play by the rules.” In response to the assassination of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Piker has said that those in the healthcare industry are themselves committing “social murder.” This implies that celebrating mass murder is a policy position, and endorsing Hamas is a valid stance on the conflict in the Middle East.
Piker is 34 years old. These aren’t youthful mistakes. They are repeated, escalating statements spanning years, from a man paid millions per year by Twitch who bought a $2.74 million mansion in Beverly Grove, West Hollywood and a $200,000 Porsche. Anti-capitalist grift and hypocrisy is predictable coming from a social media influencer. But it’s not something we should come to expect from our elected representatives.
So why is Khanna running defense? Piker recently rallied with Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive organizer running for Nancy Pelosi’s old Congressional seat in San Francisco, alongside Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Khanna isn’t doing moral philosophy. He’s doing factional Democratic politics, blessing the pipeline from socialist influencer to Democratic kingmaker because it serves his own national ambitions.
Khanna’s Hypocrisy
The deeper fraud is financial. Khanna legitimizes Piker’s “eat the rich” worldview even while quietly running one of the most profitable stock portfolios in Congress.
An analysis by ProCap Insights found that trades linked to Khanna’s family posted a 112.1% excess return over the S&P 500 from January 2024 through April 2026. Nancy Pelosi, the previous reigning congressional stock trading villain, managed 38.5% over the same period. Khanna nearly tripled her.
He reported over 3,000 trades last year totaling roughly $50 million. For context, that’s a volume most retail investors won’t see in a lifetime. His trading volume doubled from $35 million in 2017 to $87 million in 2025, growing in lockstep with his anti-trading public brand. He is simultaneously the leading congressional advocate for banning stock trading AND the third most prolific trader in Congress. His defense? The trades are made by his wife’s trust. He claims he has “no input.”
Calling for wealth confiscation while tripling Pelosi’s stock returns is a kind of confidence only a 2028 presidential hopeful can muster. The strategy is transparent: Piker earns millions preaching socialism from a West Hollywood mansion. Khanna champions wealth taxes while his family’s portfolio beats hedge funds. Anti-wealth rhetoric up front, personal enrichment out back.
A Congressman Without a District
Khanna’s willingness to abandon morality for the sake of political and personal enrichment is hardly surprising. Roughly 51% of Khanna’s campaign contributions come from outside the Bay Area. The wealthiest congressional district in the country, home to Apple, predominantly Asian American, and filled with immigrant families who came here for economic mobility, is being used as a stepping stone for a national populist brand.
Let's see... Ro Khanna is defending someone who incites murder, "let the streets soak in their red-capitalist blood," and who said America deserved 9/11. Like Saikat Chakrabarti, Ro Khanna is unfit for any job and should lose his seat in Congress to @ethanagarwal this year
We are the party of redemption, believing you deserve a second chance if you made a mistake as a young person or deserve to make a life if you came here undocumented but work hard and play by the rules. …
Defending Piker is the latest move in a 2028 playbook: court the populist far-left base, even while enriching yourself, no matter the moral or material cost to your own district. 51% of his money from outside the district. 112% outperformance on his stock trades. 0% accountability to the people he represents.
CA-17 voters have a Democratic primary to fix this.
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Related Links
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Ro Khanna's 'Redemption' Tweet (@RoKhanna)
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Ro Khanna's stock performance surges 112% (Newsweek)
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Who Is Hasan Piker: The Full Story (National Review)
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Tech entrepreneur to challenge Rep. Ro Khanna (SF Chronicle)
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Ro Khanna's 96% Problem (Garry's List)
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The California initiative process is a great example of a good idea that has gone off the rails, replacing real legislative work with bullet-delivered grievance solutions. Reading the Politico piece on SEIU-United Health Care Workers union head, Dave Regan, he seems like a Machiavellian tour de force using the initiative process as a weapon to thwart his enemies while building his forces. As Politico writes: “In California, he saw ballot initiatives as a way to expand the union’s influence and boost its membership. In what would become his signature move, he embraced the ‘leverage play,' in which groups file measures to force deals they couldn’t win through legislation.” Perhaps this is why there was no serious squawking about the federal cuts to healthcare, because it provides cover without addressing the substantial fraud that goes on in the state.
It is unfortunate that Ro Khanna has jumped on the grievance train, where grievance triumphs over reality or truth, and he is providing cover for what seems to be a military strategy. Ro Khanna first came on my radar in 2022 when he, as the lone Democrat, came out against Twitter’s decision to suppress the Hunter Biden’s laptop story - thus upholding the First Amendment over partisan politics and in the end truth over lies. He popped again with his interview with Bishop Barron in a very amicable discussion. I liked what I heard. He seemed like an old-fashioned Democrat, proud to be an American and wanting to soften the rough edges of concentrated wealth with more economic opportunity, though he hinted that this included measuring outcomes. Back then, I hoped he would run for governor, but not now. Initiative No. 25-0024’s language is classic economic warfare pitting one class against another. What policing force will be used to value one’s assets? Will it include home visits to view artwork? And when it comes to the valuation of stocks, how is that even determined? If a company and its stocks tank, is there a refund? Finally, what do we do about the signal that the more successful you are, the more envious others will become and they will have state authority to seize what is created. We ran the oil industry out of California - an enterprise that built wealth. We now engage in tailpipe environmentalism patting ourselves on the back for being virtuous.