https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pv0p!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5a3e01a-2702-4d86-9b09-ffc00b4f0326_736x515.jpeg Hasan Piker (screenshot) There were plenty of outlandish moments during left-wing Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign stops with the noxious anti-American influencer Hasan Piker. But amid all the hubbub, a critical storyline fell through the cracks: El-Sayed’s height. “Piker appeared almost comically larger by comparison as the two answered questions about Israel’s nefarious influence and the anti-colonial resistance of Hamas,” our Andrew Stiles writes. But how much larger? The University of Michigan’s club lacrosse team listed El-Sayed at 5 foot 9, while a glowing New York Times profile described Piker as “6 feet 4 inches tall and built like a professional athlete.” “Of course, this is the same publication that mistakenly referred to NATO as the ‘North American Treaty Organization,’” Stiles notes, and an “extensive Washington Free Beacon analysis found ample evidence to suggest that El-Sayed and Piker are lying about their actual size.” In September 2015, for example, Piker was photographed alongside former NFL wide receiver Drew Carter, who was listed at 6 foot 3 throughout his career. Piker appeared to be at least 1-2 inches shorter than Carter, but “because Piker’s feet were not visible in the photo, we were unable to rule out the possibility that he was wearing lifts or standing on a box.” A decade later, in April 2025, Piker interviewed the 5 foot 9 socialist Zohran Mamdani in a New York City smoothie cafe. “Screenshots from the interview, in which both men were seated at a table, reveal that Mamdani is roughly an inch taller than Piker, which would make Piker approximately 5’8”—eight inches shorter than advertised,” writes Stiles. “A subsequent comparative analysis determined that Piker is about 10 inches taller than El-Sayed, which would make the U.S. Senate hopeful approximately 4’10”—a prohibitively diminutive stature for a male politician running for higher office.” https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rr4U!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F62df4726-fbf5-42f9-8572-23b776b36b96_736x470.jpeg https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PRzq!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdace25e1-896f-4e02-afa7-6cb20fdbbf52_736x515.jpeg Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more ‘Moderate’ Democrat Abigail Spanberger Claims Credit for Business Investments Secured by GOP Predecessor Plus, Zohran Mamdani and Jamie Dimon offer clashing visions of New York City—and is the diminutive Abdul El-Sayed too short to serve in the Senate? Eliana Johnson Apr 9 READ IN APP Abigail Spanberger (Win McNamee/Getty Images) “Moderate” Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger campaigned on affordability but has spent her first weeks in office pushing a redistricting measure she said she had “no plans” to support. Now she’s touting new legislation “welcoming 3,250 new jobs” and “$7.1 billion in business investment to Virginia.” It turns out that Spanberger’s Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, secured all of the investments. Three of the companies Spanberger spotlighted, in fact, invested before Spanberger won in November, our Jessica Schwalb reports. Spanberger’s announcement on Monday highlighted investments from Avio USA, Hitachi Energy, Eli Lily, and AstraZeneca. All four companies included quotes from Youngkin when they announced investments last year. AstraZeneca’s CEO specifically thanked “Governor Youngkin and his team for their energy and vision,” saying the company “found in Virginia an amazing team that moves at incredible speed to build a better future for this Commonwealth and the American people.” Hitachi said its new Virginia facility came “with the support of Governor Youngkin” as well as “the Trump Administration’s White House AI Action Plan.” Spanberger nonetheless took credit in her announcement for “working to create a stable business environment so companies can hire, expand, and continue to invest in our Commonwealth.” “Spanberger, who did not respond to a request for comment, touted the investments the same day a Washington Post-Schar School poll put her approval rating at 47 percent—13 percentage points below the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s,” writes Schwalb. “A plurality—41 percent—also said her policies would make Virginia less affordable, according to the Post survey.” A Youngkin spokesman, Justin Discigil, said the former governor “is happy that Virginians are being reminded of some good news, even if it means Gov. Spanberger taking credit for the economic deals he secured for the Commonwealth.” READ MORE: Abigail Spanberger Takes Credit for $7.1 Billion In Business Investments Secured by GOP Predecessor Glenn Youngkin Jamie Dimon and Zohran Mamdani (Getty Images) Two of the most prominent New Yorkers have released documents outlining their visions of America’s future. On one hand is Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 375-page “Preliminary Racial Equity Plan.” On the other is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s 48-page annual shareholder letter. It’s “hard to believe that the two men are describing the same planet, let alone the same country and city,” writes the Free Beacon’s Ira Stoll: Both men are racing to define America’s past in its 250th anniversary year. For Dimon, a big danger is that Americans lose faith in our country. “While we should acknowledge America’s flaws, they should not be used to pull apart our country. We need to believe in ourselves and get back to work, not tear each other down,” Dimon writes. For Mamdani and his “Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice,” a big danger is overlooking what the report calls “historical harms” and how “New York City’s past is deeply intertwined with the structural racial inequities experienced by its communities of color.” These dueling visions—grievance versus optimism—will likely define the debate about America’s future. As Dimon put it, they aren’t totally mutually exclusive—acknowledging America’s flaws doesn’t prevent celebrating America’s ability to fix its flaws and believing in its continued capacity for self-improvement. Yet Mamdani—the son of a Columbia professor full of criticism of settler colonialism—generates doubts about whether New York City will be at the lead of America’s next 250 years or, instead, will be undermining it. Those of us in the optimism camp have some confidence that, regardless of New York City’s role, America will net out as it has over the past 250 years, as a kind of miracle. READ MORE: Mamdani, Dimon Offer Clashing Visions of New York City—And America at 250 Hasan Piker (screenshot) There were plenty of outlandish moments during left-wing Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign stops with the noxious anti-American influencer Hasan Piker. But amid all the hubbub, a critical storyline fell through the cracks: El-Sayed’s height. “Piker appeared almost comically larger by comparison as the two answered questions about Israel’s nefarious influence and the anti-colonial resistance of Hamas,” our Andrew Stiles writes. But how much larger? The University of Michigan’s club lacrosse team listed El-Sayed at 5 foot 9, while a glowing New York Times profile described Piker as “6 feet 4 inches tall and built like a professional athlete.” “Of course, this is the same publication that mistakenly referred to NATO as the ‘North American Treaty Organization,’” Stiles notes, and an “extensive Washington Free Beacon analysis found ample evidence to suggest that El-Sayed and Piker are lying about their actual size.” In September 2015, for example, Piker was photographed alongside former NFL wide receiver Drew Carter, who was listed at 6 foot 3 throughout his career. Piker appeared to be at least 1-2 inches shorter than Carter, but “because Piker’s feet were not visible in the photo, we were unable to rule out the possibility that he was wearing lifts or standing on a box.” A decade later, in April 2025, Piker interviewed the 5 foot 9 socialist Zohran Mamdani in a New York City smoothie cafe. “Screenshots from the interview, in which both men were seated at a table, reveal that Mamdani is roughly an inch taller than Piker, which would make Piker approximately 5’8”—eight inches shorter than advertised,” writes Stiles. “A subsequent comparative analysis determined that Piker is about 10 inches taller than El-Sayed, which would make the U.S. Senate hopeful approximately 4’10”—a prohibitively diminutive stature for a male politician running for higher office.” READ MORE: Too Short to Serve? Hasan Piker Brutally Height Mogs Pocket-Sized ‘Manlet’ Abdul El-Sayed