An incoming Democrat congressman repeatedly refused to say whether he considered the Islamic Republic of Iran an enemy of the United States during a CNN interview.
New Jersey Democratic Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy, a U.S. Army veteran, observant Muslim, and outspoken critic of Israel, won his race last Tuesday in the state’s deep-blue 12th Congressional District.
Appearing on CNN’s The Situation Room, Hamawy was repeatedly pressed by co-host Pamela Brown about his views on the Iranian regime after calling for the United States to end all military funding to Israel.
“Do you see Iran as the adversary?” Brown asked.
“We pushed them into a fight,” Hamawy insisted. “I think we both have to step back and ask: Is this helping either one of us?”
“But are they the adversary?” Brown pressed.
“We’re making adversaries when we should be making friends,” Hamawy replied.
Brown pushed back, noting that the Iranian regime has been chanting “Death to America” for decades.
Hamawy didn’t budge, responding, “We’ve been saying ‘Death to Iran’ for decades as well.”
Brown then pointed out that Iran had killed scores of Americans, putting Hamawy on the defensive: “And we’ve killed a lot of them as well.”
When Brown again asked whether he considered Iran an adversary, Hamawy argued that the United States was the one pushing Iran into a needless conflict.
“I see that we are pushing Iran into a fight when we have the leverage to bring them to the table,” he said.
He later agreed the Iranian regime is a dictatorship and authoritarian but refused to go further than that. “I’m saying that doesn’t help us. We’re in the middle of a war right now that is making American lives worse. We’re putting our troops at risk. We’re creating, you know, an economic crisis that we don’t need. And so, the blame game doesn’t help. So, how do we get out of this?” Hamawy said, according to Fox News.
Hamawy, who owns a cosmetic surgery practice in Princeton, is a first-time candidate who defeated a crowded field in the state’s primary. He said one of the reasons he entered the race was the cold shoulder he felt from lawmakers following his 2024 trip to a Gaza hospital, The New York Times reported.
He joins Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senator-elect, in refusing to condemn the regime as the Trump administration weighs a potential peace deal, renewed military action, or continued economic blockade. On the campaign trail, El-Sayed refused to say whether Iran or Israel posed a greater threat, dismissing it as a hypothetical and “dumb question.” He is set to be America’s first Muslim Senator.
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