Not so long ago, Americans across the political spectrum agreed on something basic: people with ties to terrorist organizations don’t belong in Congress. It wasn’t a hot take. It wasn’t partisan bickering. It was bedrock common sense, born out of real attacks on American soil that killed real Americans.
That agreement is apparently obsolete — at least within the Democrat Party. What just unfolded in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District should stop every security-minded citizen dead in their tracks. And honestly, it’s worse than the headline suggests.
From The Post Millennial:
Republican leaders criticized New Jersey Democrats’ choice to advance congressional candidate Adam Hamawy to the general election in November. Hamawy, a Muslim socialist with ties to the terrorist group Al Qaeda, defeated roughly a dozen Democratic opponents on Tuesday to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in the state’s 12th Congressional District. He is now favored to win the solidly blue district.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said “A Democrat linked to Al-Qaeda won a House Democrat Congressional primary in New Jersey last night. Not even ties to terrorists are too extreme for the modern day Democrat Party. This is the Contrast For America on display between common sense and CRAZY.”
The details don’t improve from there. Adam Hamawy, an Egyptian-born physician, struck up a relationship with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman — the infamous “Blind Sheikh” — starting with a road trip to Detroit in 1991. Hamawy later translated for Abdel-Rahman at a news conference where the sheikh denied any role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. That attack killed six Americans and injured thousands. Hamawy then showed up as a defense witness during the sheikh’s federal trial, where Abdel-Rahman was convicted of conspiring to carry out terrorist strikes in New York City.
Andrew McCarthy, the chief federal prosecutor who put Abdel-Rahman behind bars, confirmed to Fox News Digital that Hamawy’s testimony was offered specifically to undermine the government’s case. Hamawy also volunteered briefly for a now-shuttered al-Qaeda-linked front group in Bosnia in 1994, according to Jewish Insider. His campaign waves all of this away as “guilt-by-association shaming.” Right. Because the associations in question involve convicted terrorist masterminds, not a neighborhood bowling league.
A platform to match the résumé
Hamawy’s past would be disqualifying enough on its own. His current policy agenda seals the deal. During an April interview with socialist streamer Hasan Piker — who is himself under federal investigation for foreign ties, by the way — Hamawy declared his intention to defund the United States military, abolish ICE, and dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
Read that again slowly. A man who once translated for a convicted terrorist now wants to gut the very agencies designed to stop the next attack. He earned endorsements from Bernie Sanders, received funding from a pro-Palestinian super PAC, and was championed by the most radical wing of the progressive movement. Shocking? Only if you haven’t been paying attention.
Even Democrats see the problem
Here’s what makes this truly indefensible. The alarm bells aren’t just coming from Republicans. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, publicly voiced “deep concerns” about Hamawy’s “associations with terrorist organizations and leaders who have attacked America.” One of Hamawy’s own primary opponents, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, flatly called him a “radical extremist.”
Democratic voters picked him anyway. Over roughly a dozen alternatives. Remarkable.
Republicans, meanwhile, were unequivocal. Rep. Mike Lawler of New York demanded a full congressional investigation should Hamawy win the general election. And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida delivered the bluntest verdict: “There is no way he can have a security clearance. National security risk.”
The clearance paradox no one can explain
Luna nailed the central absurdity. Any ordinary American seeking a federal security clearance with Hamawy’s background would be rejected before the ink dried on the application. Yet members of Congress receive access to classified intelligence briefings by virtue of winning an election — no separate vetting required. The system simply never anticipated a scenario this brazen.
Voters in New Jersey’s 12th District will choose this November between Republican Gregg Mele and a candidate whose associations and agenda raise the most serious national security questions imaginable. The rest of the country ought to be watching. When a major party cannot — or will not — distinguish between credible public servants and candidates with terror-adjacent histories and plans to dismantle American security infrastructure, we’ve moved well past partisan disagreement into genuinely dangerous territory.
Key Takeaways
- Adam Hamawy, a Democrat with documented ties to al-Qaeda figures, won the NJ-12 primary.
- GOP leaders unanimously branded Hamawy a national security risk unfit for a clearance.
- Even fellow Democrats have raised serious concerns about his terrorist-linked associations.
- Hamawy openly advocates defunding the military, abolishing ICE, and dismantling DHS.
Sources: The Post Millennial, Fox News
