Piker Clarifies Comments

Hasan Piker is once again fighting with critics over one of the most infamous comments of his career, and the timing isn’t particularly convenient for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

Piker, the enormously successful left-wing political streamer who supported El-Sayed during Michigan’s Democratic primary, returned to X to address criticism surrounding his 2019 declaration that “America deserved 9/11.”

That seven-year-old remark has followed Piker ever since he made it.

Piker originally delivered the line while discussing American foreign policy and then-Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL. After the resulting backlash, Piker said his language had been inappropriate and that he should have expressed his argument more precisely.

Critics have long argued that this fell short of simply repudiating the statement.

Now the controversy has acquired fresh political relevance because Piker enthusiastically backed El-Sayed, who defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

El-Sayed’s victory immediately elevated everything surrounding his campaign to general-election scrutiny. Old videos, endorsements, associations and controversial statements are being recirculated as Republicans begin building their case against him.

Piker’s history provides plenty of material.

His “America deserved 9/11” remark is only one example. Other old comments circulating online include inflammatory statements about Israelis and settlers in the West Bank, as well as a crude remark involving wealthy young men and sexual assault.

Those statements belong to Piker, not El-Sayed. Supporting a candidate doesn’t make that candidate automatically responsible for everything a supporter has ever said.

But politics rarely stops at that distinction.

When a prominent political personality campaigns for a candidate, opponents will naturally ask whether the candidate agrees with that person’s most controversial positions. That’s particularly true when the supporter has an enormous online audience and actively promotes the campaign.

Piker’s involvement therefore creates an obvious question for El-Sayed: Which of Piker’s statements does he agree with, and which does he reject?

Piker has also responded angrily to criticism surrounding El-Sayed following the primary, including accusations of Islamophobia against some of the candidate’s critics.

There undoubtedly can be anti-Muslim attacks directed at Muslim politicians, just as legitimate scrutiny of a candidate’s record isn’t automatically bigotry. The important distinction is whether criticism targets El-Sayed because he is Muslim or challenges specific things he has said, done or supported.

That distinction is likely to matter considerably in Michigan.

El-Sayed now has to move from winning a Democratic primary to winning statewide in one of America’s most competitive political battlegrounds. Donald Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and again in 2024, while Joe Biden won it in 2020.

Republicans therefore don’t need to persuade Democratic primary voters that El-Sayed is too progressive. They need to persuade enough general-election voters.

Piker’s old clips will almost certainly become part of that effort.