Here’s a disturbing game: who’s the worst Democrat nominee this cycle? Platner is definitely in the running – although he’s not yet officially the Democrats’ nominee for governor in Maine. But arguably neck and neck with Platner is Dr. Adam Hamawy, the nominee in New Jersey’s 12 district for the US House of Representatives.

The way he was advertised in the campaign was as a military veteran and doctor who saved lives during the Iraq War. And that is true:

I’m Dr. Adam Hamawy. I’m a father, a husband, a humanitarian, a surgeon, a veteran, and a small business owner. I’ve dedicated my life to serving others, and I’m running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th District to build a government that works for you, not special interests.

Just a great guy, right? He goes on to criticize ICE in typical Democrat fashion, and then segues to some Obama-esque “let’s all get together” pablum:

This is not about Republicans or Democrats. Both parties have failed to address the problems facing our families – affordability, healthcare, education, and so much more. Congress has the power to solve our problems instead of making them worse, but only if we elect Members with the courage to fight for us.

I’m stepping up now to fight for you because the people of New Jersey’s 12th district deserve a leader that puts our interests first, not billionaires and special interests.

Here’s a slightly more detailed bio that he offers. But nowhere does he seem to mention – much less try to explain – what even Politico calls his “controversial past” [my emphasis]:

Hamawy, who lives in South Brunswick and runs a plastic surgery practice in Princeton, entered the race as a political unknown. His campaign quickly gained traction as progressives simmered over Israel and its war with Hamas in Gaza. Hamawy’s work volunteering at a Gaza hospital during the war earned him support. …

Hamawy, 56, led the Democratic field in fundraising even before a new super PAC called American Priorities, founded as a pro-Palestinian counterweight to the pro-Israel AIPAC, spent $2 million on his behalf. …

Hamawy’s campaign planks are unabashedly progressive, including “Medicare For All” and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which his campaign website says is “full of neo-Nazis at all ranks”) and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security.

So we have a Hamas-friendly, Egyptian-born, MD who is extremely to the left and considers ICE ‘neo-Nazis.” So far, that’s unfortunately not all that atypical for today’s Democrat Party.

But then we also have this:

But the heroic picture portrayed by Hamawy’s campaign and allies met a stark contrast when a publication tied to an anti-Islamic group resurfaced news reports of his 1995 testimony in defense of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “blind sheikh”who was convicted on terrorism and seditious conspiracy charges, and whose followers conducted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Hamawy, then a medical student in his 20s, had four years earlier accompanied Abdel-Rahman on a trip from New Jersey to Michigan, where Abdel-Rahman spoke at a conference and talked of “conquering the land of the infidels.” Even after the World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy acknowledged translating a document for Abdel-Rahman for a press conference.

Hamawy said on the campaign trail that he disavowed Abdel-Rahman’s calls for violence and called the critiques against him as “guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates.”

He’s the victim, of course.

And his opponents among the Democrats were in the odd position of being reluctant to mention it, probably because of the danger of being accused of Islamophobia or the like. So I wonder how many of Hamawy’s voters even knew of his past:

While the Abdel-Rahman controversy got significant media attention and criticism from the right, most of Hamawy’s rivals declined to touch it. Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, an exception, called Hamawy a “radical extremist.”

Hamawy in November faces Republican Gregg Mele, who has run unsuccessfully for several offices in New Jersey as a Republican and libertarian.

That’s not the only thing in Hamawy’s background that’s “controversial.” I’ve cued up just a couple of minutes of the Ruthless podcast discussing some of the rest, which includes an al Qaeda connection:

[NOTE: See also this article on the general theme of the radicalism of the current Democrats.]