Why This Former U.S. Army Physician is Running for Congress (w/ Dr. Adam Hamawy)

Dr. Adam Hamawy says that to move forward, the Democrats must embrace an anti-war, economically progressive agenda, and abandon the categories of left vs. right.

The bipartisan US-backed genocide in Gaza exposed the corruption of the political system in the United States and the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, which claims to represent working people. Rather than recognizing this fact and shifting its stances to better represent its voting base, the Democratic Party establishment is attacking candidates who run on progressive platforms and is setting the stage for another Republican victory.

In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Chris Hedges speaks with Dr. Adam Hamawy, a military veteran and trauma surgeon running for Congress in New Jersey to replace the retiring representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. Similarly to Dr. El-Sayed, who won his Democratic primary in Michigan despite record spending to oppose him by the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, and Democratic Party leadership’s support for his opponent, Dr. Hamawy recently won the primary and will face a Republican in the November election.

Hamawy discusses how his experiences of talking to members of Congress after coming home from volunteering in hospitals in Gaza drove him into politics and describes the vicious, racist and false attacks launched against him, his family and co-workers since the start of his campaign. He laments the influence of money on politics, especially by the military industrial complex, that puts profits over people and robs communities of funding for basic necessities. Hamawy calls for the consistent application of laws, especially the Leahy Law, which restricts foreign aid to countries that violate human rights.

Hedges and Hamawy analyze the failures of the Democratic Party to unify around a platform that represents their voting base’s interests, instead trying and failing to push progressive candidates out of the party. Dr. Hamawy says, “The Democratic Party has actually shifted more to the right and we are really holding that center.” Hamawy outlines his political priorities if he is elected and the struggles ahead for this new “wave of candidates that are fighting for the people,” saying, “We are going to fight to start bringing these resources back home.”

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Chris Hedges:

There are a string of Democratic Party insurgents who defied party leadership to run on a progressive agenda that includes universal health care for all, a cessation of military aid to Israel, and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly beat Representative Haley Stevens in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary, is one example. He overcame more than $60 million in outside spending, much of it coming from corporate and pro-Israel super PACs, making the race the most expensive Democratic primary ever. His opponent was also backed by the party hierarchy, including Governor Gretchen Whitmer, outgoing Senator Gary Peters, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a U.S. Army veteran and outspoken critic of the genocide in Gaza, is another insurgent candidate who won the Democratic primary for the New Jersey House seat being vacated by retiring Representative Bonnie Coleman. He will compete in November against the Republican candidate and Trump supporter Gregg Mele in a district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

Joining me to discuss this insurgency and what it means for the Democratic Party is Dr. Hamawy. Let’s begin, Adam, with what it is that propelled you into this race. As I mentioned, you were a doctor in the army, including in Bosnia, where we both were, but you also, as a private citizen, made two trips to Gaza to work as a doctor, and you’ve not been politically active until now. What is it that made you decide to run for this seat?

Adam Hamawy:

So, I grew up in New Jersey, and after serving in the army, I came back and was a doctor in the community. I have my own practice. I cover the emergency room. I cover trauma at Robert Wood Johnson where I see patients coming in for facial fractures and hand surgery, and every year it’s getting more and more difficult to take care of patients here at home. Whether it’s coming in without insurance or having high premiums or not even understanding the system, people are discharged, have no follow-up. They’re struggling to pay their bills and choosing between their medical bills and their rent. And at the same time, I’ve experienced the other side of it. I served in the US Army. I was a combat trauma surgeon in Iraq, and after serving eight years, I’ve been volunteering around the world. So, I did volunteer in Bosnia and I volunteered in Central America, Africa, throughout the Middle East, and we can’t afford universal health care or Medicare for all here in the United States, but we always have enough money for bombs. We are able to support our military with over a trillion dollars a year and have these endless wars. We are supporting, by making bombs for Israel, and what I saw in in Bosnia was a genocide and what I experienced in Gaza was ten times worse that. It is something I’ve never seen before. And we are using taxpayer dollars for that.

I got sick of always complaining. I came back from Gaza not only as a doctor who’s worked in a genocide but as a witness because no one else is allowed in there and to talk about it. Journalists aren’t allowed to enter. A few humanitarian workers in there, including the doctors and nurses, and so it fell on us as an obligation to go to Congress and tell them this is what we are doing. And I started doing that after my trip in 2024. I ran into many types of doors. I always classify it into three types. There are those who sat, listened and were moved to do something, very few. One of them was our current Congresswoman, Bonnie Watson Coleman, who allowed me a platform to speak and I was a guest at her State of the Union and did some press conferences with her, but most did not. There were some that would listen and say, “Well, that sounds horrible, but we can’t do or say anything. It would be political suicide to speak against that.” And even more doors that were completely shut that would not even meet with me and my colleagues and listen, whether you agreed to or not.

And so, that being the case, as soon as Rep. Bonnie said that she’s stepping down, I felt it was critical that we have a voice in Congress that speaks the truth, that is able to bring the resources back to the community where we really need it. Our healthcare system here in the United States is broken and every year it gets more and more difficult. We are fighting insurance companies every single day to be able to provide decent care to our neighbors and co-workers and at the same time, we are funding a genocide. We are funding the warmongering military-industrial complex. The only one benefiting from these wars are them. We clearly are not benefiting. We’re not safer today than we were a year ago or 20 years ago. We have created more people that hate us and more enemies, and we are pushing away our allies. So, this excuse of making the world safer is falling flat. And so, we need voices in Congress that understand that. And I have not been involved in politics other than being a voter, but I’ve been on the ground working here in New Jersey and around the world and I see the effects. And as a surgeon I always go to the source. I don’t give a lot of medicine. I go to the disease and cut it out and we can’t fix our healthcare system here in the hospitals. It has to be done in Washington. And that’s what I’m doing.

Chris Hedges:

When you announced, I remember you were really viciously attacked because, of course, your opposition to the genocide is an anathema of the Democratic Party leadership. One of the things that stunned me, and maybe you can detail some of it, is just how patently racist these attacks were. On the one hand, Jewish students who feel ‘uncomfortable’ by encampments are used to demonize those students who are protesting the genocide, but there are no rules when you attack Muslims.

Adam Hamawy:

Unfortunately, that is the current reality, and I experienced that not just when I announced that I was running, I experienced that growing up to a small extent. But after I came back from Gaza, I wasn’t quiet. I used every outlet that I could. I spoke at universities, spoke to any press that would allow me to speak and, like I said, I was going to Congress and I was getting attacked back then. The attacks were personal against me. They were personal against my business and my practice. And it just got worse obviously when jumping into politics because it just gave an excuse is that “Well he’s running for office and we could attack him any way you want.” But Muslims are consistently attacked and I call it the last frontier of racism because you could say anything against a Muslim that you’d be admonished if you were in any other underrepresented class. And it’s unfortunate, but that is the reality.

Chris Hedges:

Well, I want to cite some specifics because they called you or they tried to tag you as a terrorist. They linked you to Omar Abdel Rahman, who I think you testified as a medical authority in his trial, if I remember correctly. But they used every kind of stereotype that is used to demonize Muslims against you.

Adam Hamawy:

So, to clarify, I testified as a fact witness of events that I was present at. As you know, he was a prominent figure in New Jersey and New York, at the time. I mean he had been throughout the state. That’s when I had first met him and I was asked to come and clarify events that happened. They’re trying to extrapolate and say that I was a character witness, which I was not, that I was defending him, I was clarifying events. And you know, I believe in our system of justice. I mean, this is how it was set up is that we are supposed to have witnesses. We’re supposed to have a trial, and I was in the military at the time. I was in the military before it and afterwards, I gave testimony under oath. I was probably in the court for about twenty minutes and then left. I was never accused of anything beforehand, never accused of anything afterhand. It was public, the New York Times did cover it. And yet now, because they seem to have nothing else to attack me on, they can’t talk about the issues that I’m addressing, which are that we should have healthcare not bombs, that we should be abolishing ICE, that we need to unrig this economy. They fall back on terrorism because that’s all they have. You can’t even talk about Israel anymore because they know that that’s not a winning topic. And so, the fallback with any Muslim is that they must be a terrorist. That’s what they’re using against me. That’s what they’re using against their colleagues. And to a lesser degree, in the workforce and in general society, it’s okay to call us anything you want because that’s the stereotype that’s still out there and The Right will always use that to attack and unfortunately we see some Democrats using the same tactics especially if you have nothing else to use.

Chris Hedges:

I just want to be clear, I covered Omar Abdel Rahman for the New York Times and I’m pretty certain he was framed. He was a radical cleric and many of the things he said were perhaps unpalatable to many people, but he was not the engine behind the World Trade Center attack, the earlier one, which he was accused of.

Let’s talk a little bit about the Democratic Party leadership. I think it’s interesting that Chuck Schumer’s approval rating, I believe, is lower than Donald Trump’s, which is 17 percent or something, but that’s a hostile force to people like you.

Adam Hamawy:

It shouldn’t be a hostile force. We should have a common goal and that is to beat the Republicans, to have a Democratic administration, to really address the issues that people care about. That’s what the Democratic Party is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be about health care. It’s supposed to be about housing and affordability. And the perceived threat that is being laid out there, I think, is not what people want and I think that has been probably a failure on the Democratic Party for years in that we are a big tent. There are many people that are living in that tent, and we have to learn how to live with each other, kind of a small model of the entire country. How are we going to move forward? aAd that’s bringing everyone together.

So, this false dichotomy that they’re trying to do with ‘establishment’ and ‘progressive’ is like really these are labels and I think we need to look at what are the issues that people care about and once we start addressing the issues, we will start winning. And that’s what we’re seeing right now across the country. We’re seeing that candidates like myself that are not talking about labels. We’re not talking about Left and Right. We are talking about health care. We’re talking about housing. We’re talking about childcare. We’re talking about unrigging this economy. We want an immigration system that works. We have to get back to the issues, and I think once as a party we start focusing on that and rather like who’s who and what label you are within the party, then I think we’re going to see real success come.

Chris Hedges:

Well, while they try and demonize or characterize people like you as coming from fringe leftists or whatever terms they use, in fact the positions that you support, refusing to sustain the genocide, universal health care, these have majoritarian support within the Democratic Party. I think 77 percent of registered Democrats want to stop weapon shipments to Israel. I don’t know what the figures are for universal healthcare, but it’s 80+ percent, you probably know the figure. Within the Democratic Party base, these have majoritarian support and yet the hierarchy of the party ignores the base.

Adam Hamawy:

Yeah, unfortunately we are not fringe left. We are actually the center. This is where the Democratic Party needs to be based on the data, based on the base, based on what people actually want, and it really crosses party lines as well. I mean, these are the basic needs that people are looking for. I think that the Democratic Party has actually shifted more to the right and we are really holding that center and we’ve become perceived as farther left because everything else has shifted. But when we look at the issues, this is the majority view, as you are saying, and this is what has played out in election after election and poll after poll. And I think we need to get grounded again on why we were running, stop running after the corporate interests because that’s what’s shifting things right. The corporations have their demands and needs, and as we are taking corporate money and special interests like AIPAC, that’s changing the narrative of the entire party. And we need to really understand what we are serving and we should be serving people and that’s why we need to get the money out of politics.

Chris Hedges:

Do you worry about, especially with this kind of critique that the Democratic National Committee published, which was just vapid and empty, do you worry that the party is so adrift that Trump and the Republicans may be able to dominate the midterms?

Adam Hamawy:

If we continue to do that, we will continue to lose. We have to come to terms at some point on what are the goals. I know the Republicans themselves are not fully united, but at least they come together in elections and to have the call, pushing people out on the Democratic Party is, I think, it just hurts everyone involved. If we’re going to actually do this, like again, I think the whole two-party system is a problem in the first place, but this is the reality of our system. And so, if we are going to really work for people, what’s the most effective way to do that right now? And that’s for us to find out how we could work together to get real goals accomplished that matter. And that’s really getting the corporate interests out of our platforms and really looking at the basic needs that people are looking for.

Chris Hedges:

Do you draw a distinction between yourself and these candidates from the Democratic Socialists of America people like Mamdani?

Adam Hamawy:

I think we are all in agreement on certain issues. I am new to politics. If you asked me a year ago if I would have been here, I would have said, “Why would I do that? That’s crazy.” I found out I was a progressive when I just started running and this is what I stand for. It’s like, “You’re a progressive.” I’m like, “Great.” And so, that’s why I come from this the point of view that these labels are artificial.

So, with the DSA candidates, again, I’ve endorsed and supported many of them because they are standing for issues that people care about. They stand for health care. They stand for childcare. They stand for getting money out of politics. They stand for the working people. And while I’m not a member, I will ally myself with anyone who is working for people like myself, not taking corporate money and I think that’s something that we should all take as a sign because at this point, they’re getting attacked again by fearmongering, which is really always the last resort when you have nothing to talk about. Rather than talking about issues, they’re being called socialist. They’re being called communist. They’re being called whatever. Let’s listen to what’s actually being said on these campaigns and platforms and let’s get beyond whatever label either you’re calling yourself or anyone else is calling you.

Chris Hedges:

Well, the Democratic Party, if it was in Europe, would be considered a Far Right party, especially on the issue of war. Europeans take universal health care for granted. It’s part of a civilized society.

Adam Hamawy:

We are so far behind on the things that really matter. We are the richest country in the history of the world, yet we don’t have universal health care. We don’t have universal childcare. Our infrastructure is crumbling. We call ourselves the most powerful country in the world, but other than having a big military that we bully people with, we have nothing else to show for it.

Chris Hedges:

Having entered this race, what is it that surprised you the most? I mean what were you not expecting, number one? And number two, I want to talk about the recent State Department report put out by Rubio where he demonized people like you and particularly the DSA, and to what extent these threats against the ‘radical left’, which is ridiculous, but how they would tar you, to what extent that worries you?

Adam Hamawy:

No, I’m not worried at all. I mean, the Republicans always fall back to fear tactics. And the fact that they are demonizing and coming out on an attack like that, that means they are threatened themselves. They know that they can’t talk about the issues that really matter. So, the same thing they did for the last 30 years is that they’re going to trump up something and given what are the two arch villains that have always been used, it’s communism and Muslims. And so, here’s their perfect storm to get them together on one fictional story about how they’re taking over. No one is running on platforms of communism or having some kind of Islamic Republic. Everyone is running on issues that people care about and that’s why we are winning because people see that. We are in the communities talking to our neighbors. We’re knocking on doors. People know who we are, and they’re trying to paint us with another brush. And I found on the campaign trail, no one’s specifically asking or care about that. I think people are on their phones and they get riled up and scared. But when you go to town halls, people want to hear about how it’s going to actually impact them, how they can afford their groceries, why their energy bills are going up, why there’s a data center being built in every town at this point. These are the questions that people are asking about. And if you live in your bubble and you’re on social media and you just listen to what you want to listen to, I don’t think when it comes to elections, they’re going to matter that much.

Chris Hedges:

And what is it that you weren’t prepared for? What is it that kind of surprised you once you entered this campaign?

Adam Hamawy:

You know, I expected attacks. I think the viciousness that it comes at, it’s just at another level. It’s not just political. It does affect your family. It does affect, for me, my business and my coworkers. They try to create an environment of intimidation and fear at a level that I didn’t expect even just as a candidate.

Chris Hedges:

And how is this delivered? Is it anonymous? What tactics do they use?

Adam Hamawy:

Yeah, it’s phone calls. It’s harassment, obviously on social media it’s unfiltered. You try to ignore those as much as possible, but there are crazy people out there and they use this as an excuse to do whatever crazy thing they want to. So, while most of us are sane, unfortunately there are people who are unhinged and you can’t take these threats lightly.

Chris Hedges:

No, you only need one. So, in Congress – we’re all hoping you’re going to get there – what will be your priority?

Adam Hamawy:

So, my priority is going to be, first of all, if we take the House, which I I expect we will, is that we will have some ability to start holding the Administration and Congress to account for what’s been happening over the last few years. So, working together with my colleagues, we need to have hearings. We need to have transparency. We need to start going after the corruption that has exploded basically over the last few years. I mean it’s always been there at a level but now it’s so blatant and there’s no accountability for it. Hopefully, in a couple years, once we are actually able to start passing bills again, then we need to address these issues that we’re talking about. We need to reach a universal healthcare system here like Medicare for all. I want to restore the ACA credits. I want to make sure that we have Medicaid funding to our hospitals in our communities. I mean I see this every day. Right now, people are impacted, people are worried about once they leave the hospital how they’re going to get their follow-up care. New Jersey has a $3 billion gap now after this Big Ugly Bill that came across because they can’t cover all the resources that we need. So, we need to get our health care fixed and then we need to start bringing money back into our communities and out of these endless wars.

So, I think this trillion dollar or the $1.1 trillion budget is completely unnecessary. We spend more on our military than the next nine countries combined. That is the source for our endless wars. They’re the only ones profiting from them. Like I said, we’re not any safer because of it. When we are running out of missiles and bombs because of this war in Iran, who benefits? It’s the companies that have to make more of them. Meanwhile, our gas and grocery prices are going up. So, we need to cut that budget and start putting that money back into our communities to fix our infrastructure and transportation system, a train system that now is falling behind not only developing countries but underdeveloped countries that are working to fix their transportation. We need to start taxing the wealthy. We have billionaires in this country that are profiting off people’s misery. They’re profiting off the advantages that we have given them as a country. And if we are able to tax the wealth, they’ll still be billionaires. They’ll still be well off. But again, we’re always asked how are we going to pay for all these programs you’re talking about. We have the resources. And so, it’s been a political decision not to move these resources into our communities. And in Congress, and I think with this wave of, you call them insurgents that are coming in, it’s a wave of candidates that are fighting for the people and we are going to fight to start bringing these resources back home.

Chris Hedges:

Well, under Eisenhower the richest Americans and corporations were taxed at 91 percent, which was courtesy of the New Deal. I want to talk about Israel. Obviously, you support a cessation of military aid to Israel in an attempt to halt the genocide. We are seeing pogroms and attacks by armed settler groups in the West Bank. I mean the West Bank has really become very dire. It’s not the situation of Gaza, of course. How do we deal with that humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are undergoing?

Adam Hamawy:

We are enabling it. And so, we deal with it by stopping. We have to be consistent with how we apply our own laws. We have the Leahy Laws. We should not be providing any military aid to any country, Israel or otherwise, who are not abiding by international laws. And we seem to always have an exception for Israel that is unfounded. So, we need to stop all aid, period. And until they comply, then we could start talking again about how we could fix this system, but to blame this all on Israel without looking at ourselves and our tax dollars, is I think a little bit disingenuous. You and I are paying for that genocide.

And as you pointed out, the West Bank is like in any other situation, if you did not have what’s happening in Gaza as a baseline, you would think it’s horrible. I was in the West Bank just a few months ago and we have rogue settlers that stop people in the roads. I mean, we know what just happened to Representative Ro Khanna. I experienced the same thing, where we were stopped by some random settlers, armed, no uniform, no rule of law. American citizen wearing scrubs, wearing an American flag on my chest with a US passport, filled with a car of US citizens, and we are literally told that they don’t care if you are US citizens. I had an M16 pointed at my face with the finger on the trigger. These are supposed to be our allies, but clearly, they don’t see us the same as that we are looking at them. So, I think this time of unconditional aid, unconditional support without even questioning what actually is happening on the ground is over. And Americans are waking up to the fact. This is the reality. The information is out there despite their attempts to limit it and control what’s happening. The reality is on the ground it is an apartheid state. It is abusive and I think, if we stop, that can’t continue. We are the only ones that are sustaining this genocide. And that’s why we have to look at the corruption in our politics. Why does AIPAC have so much control over our elected officials? Why did they spend over $30 million on that race in Michigan? Why am I called the anti-AIPAC candidate the day I jumped in just because I was in Gaza and was a witness and have been truthful about my answer?

What does that mean as an anti-AIPAC candidate is that I’m coming out with the truth and I’m not ready to support unconditionally. And so, we need to come to the reality that we need to be looking at what we say we stand for as a country. What are the principles that we say that we are supposed to be supporting and what are we actually doing? And again, bring these resources back home. Over $30 billion over the last three years. I did some calculations on a napkin on what that would bring to my district. That’s over $100 million that could have come to central New Jersey to fix healthcare, fix schools, fix roads, and think about that across the country. We need that here at home and we shouldn’t be using it to kill innocent families and children overseas.

Chris Hedges:

And we should be clear Israel has killed American citizens in the West Bank and Gaza.

Adam Hamawy:

Yes. They have killed imprisoned American citizens. There are citizens right now that are detained, that no one has heard about.

Chris Hedges:

I want to ask about other countries in the region like Egypt. Sisi’s Egypt has an appalling human rights record. You talk correctly about Israel’s genocide and apartheid state. And it’s tricky, I know you’re from Egypt, how would you deal with a country like Egypt?

Adam Hamawy:

I think we have to be consistent with how we apply our laws, and that goes across the board. If you are not abiding by international human rights laws, it doesn’t matter what country you are, whether you’re Israel, UAE or Egypt, then you should not receive aid from the United States. It’s that simple. And to have these laws on the books and then just applied randomly, that’s where we get into trouble. What are our values? What are we trying to promote around the world? Are we trying to promote US hegemony or are we trying to promote democracy, like we say we are? If we are, then we need to be consistent.

Chris Hedges:

I want to ask about impeachment. This is if the Democrats regain control of the House and the Senate, how important would impeachment proceedings be for you?

Adam Hamawy:

I think it is part of accountability. And we have a responsibility to our constituents. We have a responsibility to our country. And really, if we want to have a functioning democracy, it doesn’t work without accountability. And that’s what’s been absent in our government for far too long. And we need to have impeachment hearings because that brings transparency to what’s happening. It shows that you won’t be able to get away with it, because if you allow one group to get away with it, it just opens the door for more. So, even though it might be a low chance of success, I think it still should be pursued. Just because there’s a chance of failure, it doesn’t mean that we should not uphold our obligations. And I know the presidency is obviously the most clear target here, but we have to look at the officials that have been serving. Like we have a Secretary of Health that is, really it’s an abomination what’s happening to the NIH, the Department of Health, and we need to be able to go after all these officials and see how they have failed and what crimes have been committed and try to impeach anyone that we can.

Chris Hedges:

Are you a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement?

Adam Hamawy:

Yes. I am a supporter. I think it’s very important. It worked against South Africa, again another apartheid state, and we do support Israel not just militarily, but economically. And that is again money out of our pockets that is going to support an apartheid state and genocide. So, we should use every means necessary to make sure that they comply with international laws.

Chris Hedges:

Great. All right, Adam. Hopefully you will soon be my congressperson. Thank you very much for this interview. We’re all thrilled about your campaign and salute your integrity and your courage. Thank you very much.

Adam Hamawy:

Thank you very much. Appreciate your time.

Chris Hedges:

I want to thank Thomas, Diego, and Max who produced the show. You can find me at ChrisHedges.substack.com.

Host

Chris Hedges

Executive Producer:

Max Jones

Intro:

Margaret Flowers

Transcript:

Margaret Flowers

Crew:

Diego Ramos and Thomas Hedges