{"id":42724,"date":"2026-08-13T08:08:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42724"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:08:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:08:42","slug":"hasan-piker-rethinks-old-9-11-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42724","title":{"rendered":"Hasan Piker rethinks old 9\/11 comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/AP26216227614412-e1786544635438.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Hasan Piker, a left-wing commentator with a large following on the streaming platform Twitch,\u00a0recently said he could\u2019ve phrased the statement \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11\u201d in a better way but held firm to his frequent use of \u201cpejoratives\u201d to describe racial supremacist groups.<\/p>\n<p>The comments regarding the terrorist attacks were made by Piker during a live Twitch broadcast in August of 2019. He said the U.S. \u201ctotally brought it on ourselves\u201d but walked back the remarks two days later in an interview on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lKQGvVsRpaE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Young Turks<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI said it in 2019, and you know if you listen to the full conversation, you very quickly understand what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d Piker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E3YD8cP_Piw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said in an interview<\/a> with Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo\u2019s \u201cWe\u2019re Not Kidding\u201d podcast late last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should have phrased things better. 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,\u201d he later added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Piker said once the clip circulated online, he was all over Fox News and received an \u201cunbelievable amount of death threats.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a big boy. I can handle it. It is what it is,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seven years later, the comments still follow Piker and recently impacted Abdul El-Sayed, whom the Twitch streamer campaigned with and who is now the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6006337-el-sayed-wins-michigan-senate-primary\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6006337-el-sayed-wins-michigan-senate-primary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democratic nominee<\/a> in the Michigan Senate race.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed\u2019s foreign policy views on the Middle East have been scrutinized as he raises strong opposition to campaigns and lobbying efforts supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Ties to Piker, who admits that he frequently uses \u201cpejoratives\u201d when describing Israeli settlers and racial supremacist groups, have been questioned by some voters and used in Republican attack ads targeting El-Sayed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still definitely utilize the term \u2018inbred\u2019 quite frequently when talking about religious and ethno-supremacist groups, but with the exception of anything that touches Israel, because I don\u2019t want people to just like keep weaponizing that against you,\u201d Piker told Hasan <a href=\"https:\/\/grabien.com\/story?id=604926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">during the interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve called Republicans inbred hicks my whole life. I call, you know, Nazis inbred. I call them pigs. You know all these different things. I\u2019ve gotten banned for this,\u201d he continued, decrying the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s efforts to block some of his content with offensive language.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Piker says the advocacy group has contributed to his suspension from social platforms and travel bans because of his past remarks.<\/p>\n<p>During a Sunday appearance on NBC New\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d El-Sayed said Piker \u201cdisavowed\u201d his beliefs about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a dumb statement,\u201d El-Sayed said. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAnd, of course, I think Hasan, himself, would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hasan Piker, a left-wing commentator with a large following on the streaming platform Twitch,\u00a0recently said he could\u2019ve phrased the statement \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11\u201d in a better way but held firm to his frequent use of \u201cpejoratives\u201d to describe racial supremacist groups. The comments regarding the terrorist attacks were made by Piker during a live Twitch&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/AP26216227614412-e1786544635438.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}