 On November 3, 2016, Piane generated controversy when he sent out a series of tweets and Instagram posts that implied the Clintons had murdered people, that Michelle Obama was an "idiot" and various other conspiracies.His tweets were criticized for being racist, often using ethnic slurs.This led to a major backlash against his longstanding ties with RuPaul, the latter of whom came to his defense, attributing the incidents to mental illness.