Hasan Piker added to his vault of controversial statements on Thursday, calling the United States “worse” than al Qaeda, the radical Islamist terrorism network that carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Piker said that “pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths, yes,” when asked whether he believes the U.S. is worse than al Qaeda, during the latest episode of The Axios Show.
While saying he “doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists,” he claimed Washington is responsible for “tremendous terror” all around the world, pointing to the U.S.’s alleged accidental bombing of an Iranian school earlier this year.
The interview was one of at least two that the Twitch streamer sat for this week. In an interview with MS Now, Piker addressed his previous comments in which he said the U.S. deserved 9/11, and explained his decision to get involved in politics for the 2026 midterm election cycle.
Extreme rhetoric as his tool to interrupt ‘system of oppression’
In the interview with MS Now, Piker emphasized his Marxist worldview as he explained during an interview with the network’s Clock It podcast that he uses such extreme rhetoric in an attempt to flip the narrative on what being a “victim” is, and make more people in the U.S. aware of what he described as a systemic system of oppression that they should rise up against. Piker suggested he makes statements such as calling Hamas “a thousand times better” than Israel to make people start thinking, “What would they do in that situation?” and unlock “class consciousness.” His comment to Axios comparing violence perpetrated by the U.S. to that done by al Qaeda would fit into this narrative as well.
“Structural violence and state violence is oftentimes made to be invisible. So, when Israel, as a state, is operating its normal state functions, and sometimes it can come across as excessive, it’s not seen as violent. It’s no different than when people protest against police violence and police brutality. The brutality of the police is systemic violence, and therefore, it’s normalized. It’s made to be invisible, whereas when people protest against the police, that is all of a sudden chaotic,” Piker told MS Now.
In the Axios interview, Piker said the U.S.’s alleged strike on an Iranian school is a prime example of why he engages in such blunt rhetoric.
“If you’re killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror. This doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the reality of the matter is, we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again,” Piker said.
Piker’s defense comes as he has gained attention for saying he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time,” and backed Hamas as a critical part of the “Palestinian resistance” in Gaza.
He’s also been repeatedly taken to task over his comment that the U.S. deserved the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade center, which he later said referenced “the fact that all of the foreign policy decisions and our arming of insurgent groups in the region and our efforts in destabilizing the Middle East have a direct consequence, a boomerang effect, rather if you will, in causing 9/11.”
Why is Piker getting involved in politics now?
In the Clock It interview, the Twitch streamer defended his move to become increasingly involved in electoral politics despite backlash over his controversial views, arguing he believes the current political climate is the opportune moment to unlock “class consciousness” in the U.S.
Leading Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have distanced themselves from Piker. Earlier in the campaign season, Piker was campaigning with Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed, a political newcomer, and other socialist-leaning candidates across the country.
Piker said his goal isn’t necessarily to win over Democrats, but to seize on a chance to carry out his top goal: “To foment class consciousness in America.” In contrast to the dynamic in 2016, people in the Democratic Party now feel “leaderless,” he said, and the electorate overall feels more open to his move to “challenge the sacred cows of American politics” and reverse “clear calcified attitudes that people have about what America represents.”
Piker also defended one of his most controversial stances on Israel, as he emphasized that he sees his vocal favorability toward Hamas in Gaza as an opportunity for the public to “internalize” that there is “invisible … systemic violence” in the U.S. He expressed concern that people often don’t see themselves as part of a class system, but instead as “entrepreneurs,” but said the winds are shifting as people recognize “enmity” and being “screwed over … by the forces of capital” is part of “their daily experience.”
“There’s a famous quote … that I always point to. ‘Socialism will never work in America because the working class do not see themselves as an exploited proletariat, but temporarily embarrassed millionaires’. And I feel like that’s so perfectly illustrative of the way that many Americans see themselves. … So, I think that the real way to bring this conversation back to a productive place is to remind people of their class position,” he said.
“Sometimes you have to you, have to put forth your beliefs regardless of whether or not they are going to be the most appealing, and I think the successes of the pro-Palestine movement in terms of how much of a sea change that has taken place in the American consciousness issue in the last three years is proof of that reality,” he added. “That if you’re steadfast and if you know you have truth and justice on your side, and you continue your advocacy, people will inevitably recognize that perhaps you weren’t wrong all along.”
Piker and Democratic ‘hypocrisy’
Piker sought to drive home the point that his mission is not necessarily about helping Democrats win elections, but rather about more broadly changing the U.S. political dynamic by shifting “very clear, calcified attitudes that people have about what America represents.”
“My advocacy is certainly not going to be approachable for many people at first, but my bet on this, my gamble on this, isn’t that I’m doing this just so Democrats can win elections. I’m doing this because it’s true, and I want people to understand, and maybe even entertain a different perspective, even if they don’t fully internalize it and fully understand it,” Piker said. “I don’t want to just like engage in, you know, branding for the Democratic Party or PR for the Democratic Party. There are issues that I care about that the Democrats are not representing. As long as they don’t represent that, I am in opposition to them.”
Piker said he sees “hypocrisy” in Democratic circles and accused them of caving to Republicans by distancing themselves from his views.
“I’m expecting them to tackle the form, tackle the framework, to expose the hypocrisy,” he said. “So, when I see Democrats lean in to a Republican-backed messaging campaign to show how wonderful they are, to show how you know, to show how different they are from people like myself, I get increasingly frustrated. … They’re in fear, so we should never play by their rules, and we should never play by our opposition’s framing.”
More centrist and establishment Democrats have distanced themselves from or condemned Piker due to his stream of controversial views. Republicans have sought to use his positions as fodder for the campaign trail, with el Sayed’s Republican rival in Michigan, former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, swiftly pointing to the Twitch streamer’s latest comments about the U.S. being worse than al Qaeda to push el Sayed to outright condemn Piker.
El Sayed sent a comment to Axios prior to publication, saying he did not agree with Piker’s statement and doesn’t “give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer.”
SENATE DEMOCRATS EMERGE UNITED BEHIND ABDUL EL SAYED AFTER CLOSED-DOOR MEETING
But Piker said he’s making a bigger “gamble” than winning Democratic leadership to his side. He said using “incendiary” language is part of a deliberate strategy to make voters typically “unbelievably antagonistic” to socialism, to see that they are being oppressed.
“When I challenge the sacred cows of American politics, of course, that’s going to ruffle feathers, regardless of what kind of language that I utilize,” he said. “I think I’ve seen a lot of success in the fact that using this incendiary language actually closely is identifying the enmity that many people in America also feel as a part of their daily experience.”