A Republican view: a veteran and 9/11 survivor’s son is alarmed that candidates with troubling ties and extreme rhetoric are winning Democratic primaries, and he’s calling out what he sees as a failure of voters and institutions to pay attention. He points to a New Jersey congressional nominee whose past association with a known terrorist raises serious questions, and to a New York candidate whose comments about 9/11 drew sharp condemnation. The piece argues these results reflect deeper problems in how young voters are being shaped and the priorities of today’s Democratic coalition.
Don Arias is a former New York firefighter and Air Force veteran whose life was changed by the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attacks that followed. He lost his brother on 9/11 and has spent years advocating for victims’ families, and that perspective frames his anger and distrust toward certain Democratic primary winners. He finds it impossible to separate the personal cost of terror from the political consequences of electing people with questionable associations.
Dr. Adam Hamawy, a combat plastic surgeon turned congressional candidate in New Jersey, won a Democratic primary despite past connections that trouble Arias and others. Hamawy’s earlier involvement with Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, and testimony at the sheikh’s trial have left lasting doubts for critics. Arias refuses to accept simple explanations that downplay years of association with a man tied to the 1993 bombing.
“When it comes to terrorist sympathizers, I don’t really suffer fools kindly, and this guy is beyond the pale,” Arias said, voicing a raw, personal reaction that many voters affected by terror can understand. He questions how a candidate can claim ignorance of extremist views after years of close contact and court involvement. For Arias, proximity matters, and he sees a pattern that demands scrutiny rather than amnesia.
Hamawy is also a veteran and a practicing doctor, facts that complicate the narrative for some voters who want to believe in redemption and public service. But Arias argues credentials do not erase associations, especially when the associations include testimony in defense of a convicted terrorist. “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,” he continued. “And if this guy Hamawy is going to try and forget all about that — he wants it to go down the memory hole and say, ‘oh, I was a veteran, you know, I did good stuff’ — I’m not going to forget, and I don’t think people should forget.
There are additional concerns about humanitarian work that intersected with murky organizations during the same era, and those links have left unanswered questions in the public mind. Criticism of Hamawy isn’t just personal; it’s about vetting and transparency for candidates who might influence national security and foreign policy. Voters deserve a clear accounting when histories intersect with known terror networks or sanctioned groups.
In New York, another Democratic nominee’s past comments about 9/11 drew fire from Arias and others who see the remarks as a casual disregard for American sacrifice. Aber Kawas once suggested America deserved 9/11 in a 2017 interview, a line that Arias says trivializes mass murder and insults survivors. “For her to minimize 9/11 … it’s just like, ‘oh, some people had some planes,’ you know, it’s beyond the pale,” he said.
Arias connects these primary outcomes to a broader failure in education and civic life, arguing that schools and universities are producing activists instead of citizens. “It’s very insidious and it’s very seductive to the young and dumb,” he said. “It’s the young, it’s the dumb, it’s the indoctrinated who are voting for these people in numbers.”
He goes further, blaming an entire cultural pipeline for producing voters who embrace radical rhetoric without reckoning with real-world consequences. “I don’t know what happens to a person where they actually grow to hate their own country, but I blame universities and the schools for this,” Arias continued. “It’s an indictment on our education system because almost… they’re all very young, very ill informed and they’re Islamo-Nazis at this point.”
Those are fierce words, and they reflect a Republican critique that stresses national security, respect for victims, and the need to challenge ideologies that downplay terror. Arias also dismisses some left-wing economic positions as out-of-touch luxuries for people insulated from practical consequences. “These guys are cruising, so they can have these luxury beliefs, these ethereal conversations about mankind. They’re so out of touch.”
Campaigns move on, and Hamawy’s team did not answer inquiries, while Kawas pointed supporters to her social account for comment. Voters in these districts are left to decide whether past associations and past words should disqualify a candidate or whether they deserve a second look. For Arias and like-minded Republicans, the stakes are high and the memory of loss is not negotiable.
