Piker subsequently argued that the remarks had been stripped of their proper context.
But those comments did not prevent El-Sayed from publicly appearing alongside the influential online personality during his campaign for the U.S. Senate.
El-Sayed appeared with Piker at campaign events at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan in April. Their political association continued into the final stretch of the Democratic primary.
On August 3, just one day before Michigan voters headed to the polls, Piker joined El-Sayed at a Detroit pool party.
The streamer later attended El-Sayed’s victory celebration, where he reportedly demanded that Democrats who had worked against the progressive candidate be “punished.”
The relationship eventually became an issue on national television.
During an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, moderator Kristen Welker challenged El-Sayed over Piker’s infamous 9/11 statement and asked whether he would disavow it.
Rather than completely distancing himself from Piker, El-Sayed attacked the controversy surrounding the remarks as “gotcha politics” and complained that America had become “so stuck in cancel culture.”
The criticism did not disappear.
By late August, El-Sayed said he had “no plans” to campaign with Piker again.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who has frequently clashed with the activist left, offered a far more forceful assessment of Piker’s rhetoric.
“The 3,000 Americans incinerated or otherwise murdered in the Twin Towers – the falling men and women plummeting to their deaths from 110-story skyscrapers – according to Mr. Piker, all of them had it coming.”
For Republicans, the controversy has become another example of what they argue is the Democratic Party’s growing tolerance for radical political voices.
Vance drove that argument home while addressing Republicans at the Republican National Convention in Dallas.
“Democrats are running around campaigning with people who say that we deserved 9/11,” Vance said. “The people who died on that day actually had it coming.”
Vance then widened his attack beyond Piker and El-Sayed, portraying the episode as part of a much larger ideological divide heading into the midterm elections.
“You have Democrats going around saying that they want to abolish the American way of life,” Vance said. “You have Democrats going around saying that they want to seize people’s wealth.”
Piker’s political involvement has not been limited to Michigan.
Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong has also appeared with the streamer, including during a livestream in which she promoted government-run grocery stores and discussed breaking up large agricultural interests.
Piker himself has generated additional controversy through comments about communist Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, whom he has described as “one of the great leaders of this world,” while he has also referred to Hezbollah’s flag as “a dope flag.”
Republicans now see those associations as political ammunition.
Vance summarized the choice facing voters in three words: “Common sense versus crazy.”
That message allows Republicans to contrast their economic agenda — including eliminating federal taxes on tips, Social Security benefits, and overtime pay — with progressive Democrats whose alliances and rhetoric can become liabilities outside deeply blue constituencies.
El-Sayed’s association with Piker provides Republicans with an especially potent line of attack because the controversy touches something far larger than ordinary partisan disagreement.
September 11 remains one of the darkest days in modern American history.
Nearly 3,000 people were murdered. Families across the country continue to live with the consequences a quarter-century later. Firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, office employees, airline passengers, and ordinary Americans were killed in an attack that permanently changed the nation.
That is why Piker’s old statement continues to matter politically — and why El-Sayed’s willingness to campaign alongside him became an issue in the first place.
Vance’s argument is straightforward: Democrats cannot embrace provocative progressive influencers when it helps them win primaries and then dismiss questions about those alliances as “gotcha politics” once the general election begins.
For El-Sayed, that could prove particularly difficult.
He may have eventually announced that he had “no plans” for additional campaign appearances with Piker, but Republicans are unlikely to let voters forget the events that came before that decision.
Piker was not merely a random supporter standing somewhere in a crowd.
He appeared alongside El-Sayed on college campuses, joined him poolside immediately before the primary, and turned up at his victory celebration afterward.
On the 25th anniversary of September 11, Vance made clear that Republicans intend to ensure voters remember every bit of it.
