Popular left-leaning political streamer Hasan Piker was kicked off of Twitch on Monday, days after saying Republicans would “kill” Florida Sen. Rick Scott if they cared about government waste.
“If you cared about Medicare fraud, or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott, okay?” Piker said on Feb. 28.
Piker, who has 2.8 million subscribers on Twitch and another 1.5 million on YouTube, where his account is still active, made the comment while commenting on a clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
It is unclear how long Piker is suspended from Twitch. Visitors to his page are greeted with a message that says the account is “temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.”
Representatives for Piker and Twitch did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“The reason why I’m saying if you care about Medicare or Medicaid fraud you’d kill Rick Scott — and not make him a prominent part of the Republican party — is because he, to this day, is still, also known as committing the largest medicare fraud in U.S. history,” Piker added a moment later.
Piker was referring to Columbia/HCA, the healthcare company Scott founded, being fined $1.7 billion for defrauding federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare in the 1990s.
Last year, Scott said he, like President Donald Trump, was the victim of “political persecution” during that affair.
“By the way, I saw this. It happened to me,” Scott said. “I fought Hillarycare, and guess what happened when I fought Hillarycare? Justice came after me and attacked me and my company.”
On Monday, Piker responded to the suspension on X, saying next time he would call for “MAX PUNISHMENT” for Scott.
Piker was recently profiled by Slate, which described him as “pro–Palestinian liberation, pro-immigrant, pro-trans, pro-choice, and unapologetically himself. Some of this has brought accusations of antisemitism and more, all of which he strongly denies but has lately found Piker in an uncharacteristically defensive posture.”
He has been critical of Israel following the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, calling it a country that is based on an “ethno-nationalist, supremacist ideology.” Piker also recently helped raise more than $100,000 for a fundraiser tied to the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” which said it provides food to Gazans.
This was not the first time Piker has found himself in hot water for what he said while streaming. Notably, in 2019, he was criticized for saying “America deserved 9/11, dude. F— it, I’m saying it.”
