Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has been banned, again, apparently for suggesting that if the Republican Party was serious about combating Medicare fraud, they would "kill Rick Scott," the former governor of Florida who now sits as a Republican senator.
The statement came during a stream in which Hasan was reacting to an interview with US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the US government, presumably through Elon Musk's DOGE agency, is going to investigate social security, medicare and medicaid, and "carve out the fraud, waste, and abuse, and find efficiencies."
"Fraud is not coming from individuals, it's coming from providers," Piker said during his stream.
"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. You wouldn't make Rick Scott—former governor of Florida Rick Scott—you wouldn't make him ... a prominent part of the Republican party.
It's definitely not the most well-considered choice of words, but Piker justified his point—put more temperately, that Scott is more responsible for Medicare fraud than its end users—by noting that Scott's healthcare company Columbia/HCA was fined a total of more than $1.7 billion following, as Scott's now-defunct website (which you can still see via the Wayback Machine) put it, an "investigation into Columbia/HCA’s Medicare billing" while he was CEO.
Leftist YouTube & Twitch star Hasan Piker (@hasanthehun) repeatedly tells his audience that if Republicans really cared about ending fraud, they would "kill Rick Scott."He then has to Google what office @SenRickScott holds, because he is very well informed. pic.twitter.com/Thwq8H4Ks3March 3, 2025
Twitch doesn't comment on the reasons for individual account suspensions so I can't say for certain that Piker was suspended for the Rick Scott statement, but it seems pretty likely, particularly given the firestorm of controversy his remark generated on X—amplified by existing criticism of his vocal support for Palestine.
Piker himself suggested the Rick Scott comment was the cause for the suspension, although he was not exactly contrite about it.
"I'm sorry!" Piker wrote following the suspension. "I'll choose my words carefully next time and say 'if Mike Johnson cares abt 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!"
im sorry! ill choose my words carefully next time & say “if mike johnson cares abt 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! https://t.co/o2kl21usXy pic.twitter.com/1pI5Xjhi8qMarch 3, 2025
How long Piker will be suspended from Twitch remains to be seen, but this isn't his first such rodeo: According to StreamerBans, this is his fifth suspension, the longest previous suspension lasting for seven days.
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