WASHINGTON — Florida Senator Rick Scott has expressed strong criticism towards Democrats in response to incendiary comments made by Hasan Piker, a left-wing livestreamer. Piker recently sparked outrage by suggesting that Senator Scott should be killed, citing concerns about Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
In one of his livestream sessions, Piker provocatively stated, “If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott.” This remark has prompted Senator Scott to advocate for Yale University to be stripped of its funding due to their association with Piker.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Scott (R-Fla.) voiced his concerns, stating, “He wants me killed. He wants every capitalist murdered.” Scott further criticized Piker’s past statements, adding, “He said that we deserve 9/11. He’s clearly antisemitic. Democrats are campaigning with this guy.”
Scott’s criticism extended to the Democratic Party and educational institutions like Yale. Highlighting his disapproval, he remarked, “The Democrat Party supports this stuff. Yale, if they want to go support somebody that wants to see a capitalist murdered in this country, then they shouldn’t receive any federal funding. It’s pretty simple to me.”
Emphasizing his stance, Scott noted that while universities have the freedom to support whomever they wish, they should not expect federal aid if they align with individuals advocating violence against capitalists, expressing antisemitic views, or suggesting that Americans deserved the 9/11 attacks.
Scott also stressed that “these universities can do whatever they want,” but they can’t expect federal funding if “they want to support people that want to murder me and murder capitalists and are antisemitic and say that Americans deserve 9/11.”
“There’s no way my taxpayer money from Florida should be going to these places,” he further argued.
Prior to his rise to fame in politics, Scott made a fortune co-founding the Columbia Hospital Corporation. Under his watch, the company was fined $1.7 billion and faced over a dozen convictions for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and other social benefits programs.
At the time, it was described as the largest healthcare fraud case in the country.
Publicly, Scott has denied knowledge of the fraud that took place during his tenure, but has taken responsibility for it, describing it as “hard lessons” he learned.
He had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination numerous times during a deposition in the matter.
The feds never charged Scott with criminal wrongdoing. Ultimately, after getting pressured to step down by the board, Scott got stock options of over $300 million and a $10 million severance package.
Scott is the second-wealthiest member of the Senate, after Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), with a fortune of over half a billion dollars, according to Quiver Quantitative.
Piker, a nephew of “Young Turks” Cenk Uygur, is infamous for his incendiary and, at times, cruel rhetoric.
In a 2019 stream, Piker declared that “America deserved 9/11″ and later said that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was a “direct consequence” of Israeli actions, adding that if the terror group engaged in rape, it “doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”
Piker has also defended the US-designated terrorist group Hezbollah and the use of the slur “cracker.” He also despicably gushed over the “brave mujahideen” for injuring Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).
Eventually, he conceded that some of those remarks were wrong.
Democrats have been divided over how to deal with Piker, given his clout within the progressive movement and concerns about cancel culture.
Recently, Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed campaigned with him, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) argued that pols who don’t engage with people like Piker “will cost us future elections.”
