Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar participated in a livestream this week alongside a vlogger who said last year that “America deserved 9/11” and who mocked Rep. Dan Crenshaw for losing an eye in combat.
Ocasio-Cortez linked up with a group of gamers on the popular streaming service Twitch to play the video game, Among Us. One of those gamers was Hasan Piker, who came under fire last year for controversial comments about 9/11 and Crenshaw, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“America deserved 9/11, dude. F— it, I’m saying it,” Piker said in an online video last year, which he later apologized for and referred to as “inappropriate.”
Piker was suspended by Twitch for the comment.
The popular vlogger, who is the nephew of The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, also complimented the “brave” soldier who caused Crenshaw to lose an eye while serving in Iraq.
“This guy has the understanding of foreign policy of, like, a 12-year-old,” Piker said about Crenshaw. “What the f—. What the f— is wrong with this dude? Didn’t he go to war and like literally lose his eye because some mujahideen brave f—ing soldier f—ed his eye hole with their d—.”
Cenk’s Nephew called the man who took @DanCrenshawTX‘s eye a “brave fucking soldier” This is what happens when you’re gifted a job by your Uncle you know you didn’t earn & it eats away at your mental state. pic.twitter.com/BohESrbvJ6
— Sean Fitzgerald (@IamSean90) August 21, 2019
“Join me, @pokimanelol, @hasanthehun, & more on Twitch TONIGHT as we help folks make a voting plan at http://iwillvote.com and officially declare orange sus on Among Us,” the New York congresswoman tweeted before the stream Tuesday night. ”Tune in 9pm tonight at http://twitch.com/aoc.”
Join me, @pokimanelol, @hasanthehun, & more on Twitch TONIGHT as we help folks make a voting plan at https://t.co/TskRLfhCt3 and officially declare orange sus on Among Us ?
Tune in 9pm tonight at https://t.co/nZap5fuerN https://t.co/HeKMeDDjXf
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 20, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez’s stream was watched by nearly half a million people and quickly became one of the most viewed streams on the platform.
According to Axios, the group of gamers brought in the third-largest audience ever for a live Twitch stream. Ocasio-Cortez also became one of the most popular streamers on the platform, with nearly 500,000 subscribers less than 24 hours after creating her account.
