Hasan Piker, a traveling spokesman for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, has said on camera that America deserved 9/11, called for capitalists to be murdered in the street, and praised Mao Zedong — and he still has his platform and his corporate sponsors, while the same media apparatus that deplatforms conservatives overnight looks the other way.
The double standard isn't subtle. Breitbart compiled seven on-camera instances of Piker's rhetoric. Among them: Piker stated, "America deserved 9/11 dude, fuck it. I'm saying it… We totally brought it on ourselves" — and reportedly framed a September 12, 2001 newspaper photo of the Twin Towers burning on his wall. He called for the murder of capitalists during a stream about his mother's birthday: "Kill them. Kill those motherfkers. Murder those motherfkers in the street. Let the streets soak in their f**king red capitalist blood, dude." He told a black commenter asking about Sudan: "Any other black folk want to engage in radical activist language in this fucking chat? Suck my fucking cock, okay? You stupid fucking radlib. Get the fuck out." He declared, "We're going to destroy the white race, bitch." He praised Mao Zedong as "one of the great leaders of this world." He equated America with Hezbollah: "If Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, America is the top terrorist organization – which it is, by the way." And he repeated a radio transmission: "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz."
Meanwhile, the press corps that should be asking El-Sayed about his spokesman's statements is instead focused on a Trump Truth Social post. The post shows Trump and the first lady alongside El-Sayed and his wife under the headline "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's" — using El-Sayed's full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
CAIR Michigan executive director Dawud Walid called the full-name usage a familiar political tactic: "He is intentionally saying his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, to say, 'Look, this guy is outside what we would consider to be a normative America.'" University of Michigan political science associate professor Nazita Lajevardi said the post plays into a pattern of messaging about who counts as an American insider.
El-Sayed responded on CNN by pivoting to affordability: "Donald Trump's vision is the one you are living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries?" He added a crack about the first couple's marriage.
WDIV ClickOnDetroit covered the Trump post and CAIR's criticism at length but made no mention of Piker's statements or his role with the El-Sayed campaign. Breitbart documented Piker's remarks but framed the story around the Democrat establishment's willingness to work with him. Neither outlet connected both threads: a Senate candidate's spokesman openly celebrating 9/11 and calling for blood in the streets faces no platform consequences, while a president posting a photo with a full name draws organized outrage.
El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in one of the country's most closely watched Senate races. Neither the Rogers campaign nor the White House responded to WDIV's request for comment on the Trump post. The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to WDIV's request for comment either.
The question isn't whether Piker has a right to speak. In this country, he does. The question is why the corporations and platforms that silence conservatives within hours give a man who says America deserved 9/11 a permanent seat at the table.
