Left-wing streamer walks back comment about killing Republican senator after Twitch suspension
Left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker has walked back remarks urging Republicans to “kill” Sen.Rick Scott, R-Fla., after getting suspended from Twitch, a popular video live-streaming service.Piker’s statement came during a stream in which he reacted to an interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who discussed measures to “carve out” waste, fraud and abuse within Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.During the stream, Piker insisted that fraud primarily comes from providers, not recipients of government programs.“They’re not tackling providers; they’re not actually going after false billing.
They are trying to cut recipients.[Fraud] is not happening at the point of recipient.
If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott,” he said.The streamer noted that Columbia/HCA was fined over $1.7 billion when Scott was CEO of the healthcare company following an investigation into its “Medicare billing.”Twitch did not provide a specific reason for the suspension, although the timing of the violation and Piker’s ensuing X posts suggest that the above comments pushed the platform to act.This is Piker’s fifth Twitch suspension.On Monday afternoon, Piker apologized, telling his social media followers, “I’m sorry!”“I’ll choose my words carefully next time and say, ‘if Mike Johnson cares abt [sic] medicare fraud (since he wants to cut 800m from Medicaid/Medicare) he’d call for MAX PUNISHMENT for current fl gop senator/former gov Rick Scott- who has done the most Medicare fraud in us history!'” he continued.Five minutes later, Piker addressed his critics.“Big shout out to the right-wing free speech lovers who took time out of their day screaming about DEI & immigrants, to cry abt [sic] this!” he wrote on X.Hasan and Twitch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Sen.Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.and other Democrats have sat down with Piker, who was ...