Sen Rick Scott demands Yale lose federal funding over Hasan Piker event

A Senate Republican wants federal funding withdrawn from Yale for the next speech by a controversial streamer who once called for him to be “killed.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blasted an upcoming event at the Ivy League university featuring Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, who has become a hot spot for Democrats and fodder for conservatives because of his views and alignment with the party’s far left.

Piker, who has been criticized for previous comments that “America deserved the 9/11 attacks” and for excusing sexual violence committed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, is scheduled to appear at the Yale Political Union on Tuesday for an event titled “Resolved: Ending the American Empire.”

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“It’s WILD,” Scott said on

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blasted Yale for hosting far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who once said the lawmaker should be “killed” when Republicans negotiated Medicaid cuts. (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Photo by Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Yale is receiving billions from the federal government – ​​President Trump and Congress must revoke it IMMEDIATELY,” he continued. “An elite private university that hosts an anti-Semite who says a senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the United States deserved 9/11, should not receive ONE CENT from taxpayers.”

The Yale Political Union did not respond to a request for comment on Scott’s push to defund the university.

Scott and Piker have had an altercation before, indirectly.

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Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701. (Fox News)

When Republicans were preparing President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in 2025, Piker said during a stream — in response to comments by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that Republicans were targeting Medicaid fraud — that Scott should be killed.

“The reason I say if you care about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott is because — and not make him a big part of the Republican Party — it’s because to this day he’s also known for committing the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history,” Piker said.

At the time, Republicans were trying to include several provisions in the budget reconciliation process that they presented as Medicaid reforms intended to reduce costs and root out fraud in the system.

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from Cross Hall of the White House April 1, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

A crackdown on supplier prices; deny states Medicaid funding for having illegal immigrants on benefit rolls; preventing illegal immigrants from participating in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and preventing Medicaid and CHIP funding from going toward gender-affirming care were all on the table.

However, these provisions were removed from the bill because they did not meet the strict safeguards that dictate the reconciliation process. Still, Republicans were able to include strict work requirements for the health care program.

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Scott’s office has not commented on Piker’s Medicare fraud charge, but told Fox News Digital that “no Democratic elected official is calling out this guy and the press seems to be giving all Democrats a pass to actively campaign with him.”

Piker’s management team and Yale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.