Twitch streamer and political commentor Hasan Piker is scheduled to make an appearance at the University of Texas on Sept. 30. And, predictably, not everyone’s happy about it.
Students are now accusing university administrators of attempting to “soft cancel” the event by forcing it to move off campus after a surge in both interest and criticism.
But U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, took the criticism one step further with a post on X, claiming that Piker’s very presence would make Jewish students “unsafe” due to his criticisms of Israel.
“Hasan Piker’s scheduled appearance at the University of Texas is deeply concerning,” tweeted Cuellar, whose district includes part of San Antonio. “Free speech allows difficult and controversial views, but it does not require anyone to stay silent when someone has a history of hateful comments about Jewish Americans, 9/11 and Hamas terrorism.”
Piker, a vocal critic of American imperialism, told Axios in a teaser clip posted Thursday that “pound for pound,” America has committed more acts of terrorism than al-Qaeda.
The commentator also has a history of calling out antisemitism, including comments by controversial San Antonio congressional candidate Maureen Galindo, who called for putting “American Zionists” in concentration camps. Piker denounced Galindo on his Twitch stream, referring to her as “Marjorie Taylor Blue.“
“Maybe you fell off the deep end a little bit on the dark woke side,” Piker said of Galindo.
Piker has said on his Twitch stream and in interviews that conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism is a danger to Jewish Americans. Nonetheless, Cuellar’s tweet claimed that Piker’s presence alone would make Jewish students at the University of Texas feel “targeted.”
“Jewish students at UT should not be made to feel targeted or unsafe on their own campus,” continued Cuellar, one of the most conservative House Democrats. “UT should be a place for debate, learning, and respect, not antisemitism or rhetoric that excuses terrorism.”
Cuellar has accepted more than $2.4 million from pro-Israel PACs, according to watchdog group Track AIPAC. Earlier this month, Cuellar voted to cut funding for colleges and universities that boycott Israel. In July, he also voted to merge the United States and Israeli militaries.
The congressman has frequently fielded criticism from fellow Democrats for his alignment with Republicans on key votes.
In February, Cuellar spoke in opposition to the incoming U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention warehouse on San Antonio’s East Side that would detain up to 1,500 immigrants. However, just a few weeks before, he had voted to give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional $64 billion, including $10 billion allocated to ICE.
University Democrats President Adit Raha told local CBS affiliate KVUE that the student group applied for Piker’s guest speaker approval in early August and the university approved it to host the event in a 466-seat auditorium. Instead, 2,500 people signed up.
Raha told KVUE that campus officials said the event would have to be moved to a larger venue over safety concerns.
“This has the potential to be the largest political event in Austin since like 2018, and so, we’re ready to do whatever it takes to host it on campus,” Raha said.
However, Raha told the station that when his group began asking larger venues on campus to accommodate the gathering, the venues denied the request, despite being unbooked for the date requested.
The University Democrats group said UT’s actions amount to effectively canceling the event.
“We’re being, essentially, soft canceled,” Raha told the station. “By not giving us a venue, they’re essentially pushing us out of campus.”
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