Streamer Hasan Piker is once again facing scrutiny over his infamous 2019 statement that “America deserved 9/11,” and his latest explanation is unlikely to put the controversy to rest.
During a recent appearance on Mehdi Hasan’s podcast, Piker acknowledged that he could have expressed himself differently when discussing the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to The Hill, Piker said he “should have phrased things better,” while maintaining that the broader context of his original remarks explained what he meant.
“I said it in 2019, and you know if you listen to the full conversation, you very quickly understand what I’m talking about,” Piker said. “I should have phrased things better.”
The original comments came during a Twitch broadcast in 2019 and quickly became one of the most controversial moments of Piker’s career.
“This is so insane. America deserved 9/11 dude, fuck it. I’m saying it,” Piker said at the time. “We totally brought it on ourselves.”
Whatever political argument Piker intended to make about American foreign policy, those words were bound to provoke outrage. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks killed 2,977 victims after hijackers crashed commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Piker’s explanation on the podcast did not stop with saying he should have chosen his words more carefully. He also expressed frustration that conservatives have repeatedly used the remark against him.
“I apologize for those who I have offended, but most importantly, apologize for giving an opportunity to the right to just like use this against me,” he said.
That wording is noteworthy because it shifts at least part of the focus away from the substance of the original statement and toward the political consequences of having made it.
The controversy has become more significant because of Piker’s appearances alongside Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan. Those appearances have prompted questions about whether El-Sayed shares Piker’s views or is comfortable associating himself politically with the streamer.
El-Sayed has said he disagrees with the 9/11 remark, calling it a “dumb statement.” At the same time, he has pushed back against attempts to make Piker’s past comments a central issue, accusing critics of engaging in “gotcha politics” and reviving the kind of “cancel culture” Democrats have often criticized.
Piker has also received some support from Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders described the 9/11 remark as dumb but argued that Piker speaks to a large audience and should not automatically be excluded from the broader political coalition on the left.
“I think that’s a dumb statement,” Sanders said, before adding that Piker has “a whole lot of followers” and says things that resonate with many people.
Piker also defended his history of using deliberately insulting language during the podcast. Discussing derogatory descriptions he has used for political groups, he pointed to his longstanding habit of calling Republicans “inbred hicks” and using similar insults for Nazis and others.
“I’ve called Republicans inbred hicks my whole life,” Piker said. “I call, you know, Nazis inbred. I call them pigs.”
None of that changes the central problem for Piker. He may argue that his 2019 statement was taken without sufficient context, and he may regret the way he phrased it, but the words themselves were unmistakably inflammatory.
For politicians who choose to appear with him, that means the issue is unlikely to disappear simply because Piker now says he could have said it better. When someone has built a public persona around provocative commentary, the most provocative comments are inevitably going to follow them.
