Don’t worry — Twitch couldn’t take down your “woke bae” like that. Streamer Hasan Piker is back on the platform a day after making a potentially threatening joke about Sen. Rick Scott. “i’m back,” Piker confirmed on X with a photo of President Donald Trump holding a newspaper reading “ACQUITTED.” The saga started February 28, when Piker was reacting to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson talk about cutting Medicaid fraud. “If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott,” Piker said. He elaborated that he was referring to the Republican senator from Florida “committing the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history.” (Scott was CEO of Columbia/HCA in 1997, when the company was fined $1.7 billion for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.)
Piker’s suspension wasn’t immediate, but by March 3, his page said it was “temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.” Twitch didn’t confirm why Piker was suspended, though he posted the clip to TikTok (where it’s still up!) with the caption “twitch banned me for this take.” And he wasn’t quite apologetic on X or YouTube afterward. “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!” Piker wrote. After a little over 24 hours, he’s back — and of course, already promoting the stream off of his suspension.