Does a video show Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama saying she thinks "America deserved 9/11"? No, that's not true: She was quoting Hasan Piker, a political commentator and Twitch streamer who campaigned with a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan. Her quote, at a political rally in Mobile, Alabama, on Oct. 2, 2026, attended by President Donald Trump, was meant to show that Democrats don't love the United States. Piker said in 2019 that he thought "America deserved 9/11."
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @ostonox account on X on Oct. 3, 2026. It read:
Senator Katie Britt booed at rally after stating that she thinks 'America deserved 9/11'
She is up for reelection in 2028
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @ostonox on X.)
The post is embedded below:
Senator Katie Britt booed at rally after stating that she thinks "America deserved 9/11" She is up for reelection in 2028 https://t.co/X0CB7JiOiY
-- ostonox (@ostonox) October 3, 2026
The short clip of Britt saying "America deserved 9/11" is accurate but lacks the context of the point the Alabama senator was trying to make with that quote. Britt spoke for about 11 minutes during the Mobile rally (archived here). At about the 7:20 mark in the video, she begins setting up the quote. She said:
They [Democrats] just don't disagree with us; they don't love this nation. And let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. In Michigan, the Democrat running for Senate [Abdul El-Sayed] went out and campaigned with Hasan Piker, a man who said, 'America deserved 9/11.'
The video of Britt's comments in context is embedded below:
In a 2019 video stream, Piker said, "America deserved 9/11," a remark (archived here) he later said was inappropriate. Piker told Reuters in an email, "I used imprecise language in 2019 and immediately apologized for using the word 'deserved' when talking about the concept of blowback. no one deserves to be a victim to a terror attack. my stance on this has been clear since 2019," adding that it has continued to be weaponized and taken on a life of its own.
Piker's 9/11 quote appears about 52 seconds into this video (archived here) on YouTube by 13WHAM ABC News on Sept. 17, 2026.
The video is embedded below:
