Hasan Piker pours gasoline on midterms saying US ‘pound-for-pound’ is worse than al-Qaeda

Far-left streamer Hasan Piker said the United States is “pound for pound” worse than al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist network that carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Piker, a self-described socialist whose Twitch streams draw millions of views, made the comments in an interview with Axios that the outlet previewed Thursday. Piker later accused Axios of turning his “nuanced answer” into clickbait.

Ahead of the November midterms Republicans have sought to portray Piker as emblematic of the Democratic Party’s “radical left.” GOP lawmakers have pointed to Piker’s previous controversial statements, including his assertion that “America deserved 9/11” and that Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel.

The 35-year-old, from New Jersey, has also caused division within the Democratic Party. Some Democrats have appeared alongside Piker on the campaign trail, including Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, while others have denounced him.

In the Axios interview preview, reporter Alex Thompson asked Piker: “You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism… Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?”

“Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes,” Piker replied. “We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”

Elsewhere in the clip, Piker highlighted the February air strike on a school in Minab, Iran, which killed more than 150 people, including about 120 children.

U.S. military investigators reportedly reached the preliminary conclusion in March that American forces were likely responsible, while a recent U.N. fact-finding mission said it had “reasonable grounds” to believe the U.S. was to blame. The Pentagon has not publicly released its findings, and President Donald Trump told reporters in June: “I don’t think it was us.”

“One clear example of this is what we did in Minab, right?” Piker said. “There’s no distinction between blowing up a school, triple tapping it with Tomahawk missiles, if you’re killing 140 school girls; that is an act of terror.”

“This doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists,” he continued. “But the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.”

In recent weeks, Republicans have repeatedly invoked Piker as they seek to cast the Democratic Party’s left flank as too extreme. They’ve also criticized Democratic candidates and officeholders for their ties to him.

“You have [Democrats] associating themselves with someone like Hasan Piker, who said that we deserved 9/11…They’re sympathetic to Islamic jihadists,” Arizona Senator Katie Britt said earlier this month.

An image of Piker, shown shirtless, also briefly appeared on a jumbotron at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, earlier this month, according to Newsweek.

Democrats have taken varying approaches to Piker.

Last month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the streamer’s comments about Jews “malicious” and said they “should not be tolerated by anyone in the public square.”

His remarks followed Piker’s statement on his stream: “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”

El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, has also criticized some of Piker’s past remarks, calling his statement that America deserved 9/11 “dumb.”

But El-Sayed has resisted calls to fully denounce Piker, and defended him in an interview last month.

“They’re trying to equate him and David Duke and him and Nick Fuentes,” El-Sayed said. “There are a lot of things he says that I deeply agree with. People deserve healthcare. We shouldn’t be fighting dumb wars. The war in Iran is ridiculous. Donald Trump is a fascist. All true.”

Other Democrats have castigated their colleagues for dwelling too much on Piker, arguing that Republicans are using the controversy as a political trap.

“I guarantee you that 80%+ of Dems have no idea who Hasan Piker is. This is a dumb distraction and Dems should stop taking the bait,” Democratic strategist Tom Bonier wrote on social media last month.

Piker has denied allegations of antisemitism, apologized to viewers offended by his comments about the September 11 attacks and said some of his remarks have been taken out of context.