Far-left streamer Hasan Piker argued in an interview published Thursday that the US military has committed more terrorism than Al Qaeda, the Islamist network behind the 9/11 attacks.
“Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes,” Piker, a prominent surrogate for Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, told “The Axios Show” after being challenged over a recent comment describing America as “the top dog in terrorism.”
“We have caused tremendous terror all around the world,” Piker added, citing as his main example an apparent accidental missile strike on an elementary school for girls in the opening hours of the Iran war Feb. 28.
“If you’re killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror,” he went on. “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.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were deliberately killed when 19 Al Qaeda hijackers took control of passenger jets and flew them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth airliner crashed short of its apparent target, the US Capitol in Washington, when passengers stormed the cockpit.
Piker, 35, infamously said in 2019 that America “deserved 9/11,” a comment that he has only partially walked back.
El-Sayed was quick to distance himself from Piker’s comment in a statement to Axios, saying: “I do not agree with this statement, nor do I give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer. I am more concerned with the dangerous policies of Donald Trump and [Republican candidate] Mike Rogers that are raising the prices of gas, groceries and healthcare for Michiganders.”
A day earlier, however, the Democrat had defended his continued refusal to cut ties with Piker, telling Fox 2 Detroit during a candidate forum: “The reason I talk to Hasan isn’t because of Hasan, it’s because of the 3 million people who pay attention to what he has to say.”
“Too often the way that our politics happen is that we’re told who we cannot talk to.”
The Michigan Senate race is a must-win for Democrats if they hope to flip control of the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, El-Sayed currently leads Rogers by 1.8 percentage points.
