Rick Scott calls to revoke Yale’s federal funding over student organization hosting Hasan Piker
Piker has previously urged his followers to kill the Florida senator, who spoke at Yale Political Union last year
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) speaks on government funding during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on March 06, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the federal government to “immediately” pull funding from Yale University over Yale Political Union’s decision to host Hasan Piker, an antisemitic streamer who previously suggested that the senator should be killed. Piker is scheduled to speak on campus Tuesday for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire.”
Scott, who spoke last year at YPU, a storied debate society at the Ivy League university, wrote on X on Friday that “Yale receives billions from the federal government — President Trump and Congress need to IMMEDIATELY revoke it.”
Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer, has recently been invited to speak at several high-profile events, despite a laundry list of antisemitic, anti-American and terror-supporting rhetoric, which includes justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. He has also called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11.
For Scott, Piker’s incendiary language is personal; the streamer was briefly suspended from Twitch last year after urging followers to “kill Rick Scott.”
“An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers,” Scott wrote.
Asked about YPU hosting Piker, a spokesperson for Yale told Jewish Insider last week that “student organizations are responsible for issuing their own invitations to speakers.”
“At the same time, Yale is committed to maintaining a diverse, vibrant, and respectful community in which free expression is a fundamental value and a shared responsibility. The university is dedicated to providing a space where differing views can be expressed and heard respectfully,” the spokesperson said.
Unlike several Ivy League counterparts, including Harvard and Columbia, the Trump administration has not slashed Yale’s federal funding over antisemitism concerns.
Please log in if you already have a subscription, or subscribe to access the latest updates.



































































Continue with Google
Continue with Apple