Here is the credit: Adam Hamawy, Princeton, New Jersey, Sept. 6, 2024. Photo: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

New Jersey Democratic congressional nominee Adam Hamawy is facing renewed criticism after brushing aside far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s infamous declaration that “America deserved 9/11.”

During an interview with comedian and political commentator Walter Masterson, Hamawy argued that Piker’s comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks should be viewed “in perspective” and suggested the streamer regretted making them.

“I think we have to put it all in perspective. And I do believe he regrets saying that,” Hamawy said. “I still love the guy though.”

Piker made the remark during a 2019 livestream about US foreign policy. He later called the wording “inappropriate,” although he has continued to argue that American conduct abroad helped create the conditions that produced the attacks.

Hamawy’s attempt to wave away the controversy is likely to deepen scrutiny of the Democratic nominee, who has already drawn criticism for opposing US military assistance to Israel and embracing some of the party’s most outspoken anti-Israel figures.

Piker has a long record of inflammatory rhetoric concerning Israel, Jews, and terrorism. He has expressed support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis; cast doubt on documented evidence of sexual violence during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre; compared Zionism to Nazism; and referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” a remark for which he later expressed regret.

Hamawy appeared on Piker’s livestream during the Democratic primary campaign, where he advocated ending US military assistance to Israel and accused the Democratic Party of being beholden to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

On his campaign website, Hamawy highlights his service as a volunteer surgeon in Gaza and describes Israel’s military campaign against Hamas as a “genocide” financed by American taxpayers.

“In 2024 and 2025, I went on medical missions to Gaza. While bombs were falling, I treated patients,” the website says. “What I witnessed was a genocide, paid for with American tax dollars and propped up by our foreign policy.”

Hamawy also explicitly supports cutting off military assistance to Israel.

“We should not be funding foreign militaries or making arms sales to countries committing gross human rights violations,” his website states. “I support cutting off military aid to these countries, including Israel.”

Hamawy, a former US Army combat surgeon, won the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s heavily Democratic 12th Congressional District on June 2 and is seeking to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.

During the primary, he received substantial support from American Priorities, a newly formed pro-Palestinian super PAC created as a counterweight to pro-Israel groups. The organization announced plans to spend roughly $2 million backing him.

Hamawy’s refusal to sharply condemn Piker’s Sept. 11 comments comes as the streamer assumes a growing role in progressive Democratic politics despite his rhetoric about the United States, Israel, and terrorist organizations.

Earlier this month, Piker appeared as a featured speaker at the College Democrats of America national convention in Washington, DC, where he condemned Democrats who support funding for Israel. The organization’s Jewish Caucus later demanded an apology, saying his appearance sent Jewish students the message that they were unwelcome.

The episode also reflects the growing acceptance within progressive Democratic circles of rhetoric that portrays terrorist attacks as predictable consequences of American or Israeli policy.

The controversy comes as Israel becomes an increasingly significant dividing line within the Democratic Party. An April Pew Research Center survey found that 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents held an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53 percent in 2022.

That shift has reached Congress. In April, 40 members of the Senate’s 47-member Democratic caucus voted to block a bulldozer sale to Israel, while 36 supported a separate resolution seeking to halt a bomb sale.

The votes marked the strongest Senate Democratic opposition yet to an arms transfer to Israel and suggested that hostility toward the Jewish state is gaining influence across the party.