Look at All the Democrat Top Dogs Appearing With Chief of Hamas-Tied Group

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) carries leftist politicians around in its pocket like so many nickels and dimes. The designation of this unsavory group as a terror organization in Florida and Texas hasn't changed that one bit: On Saturday, some of the nation’s leading Democrat politicians happily appeared at the American Muslim Democratic Caucus’ National Convention 2026, alongside Nihad Awad, the cofounder and longtime executive director of CAIR. If anyone around these clueless and corrupt pols warned them that appearing with Awad was a bad look, they would have simply dismissed such concerns as kowtowing to the “far right.”

Abdul El-Sayed, Chris Van Hollen, Katherine Clark and others are appearing at the American Muslim Democratic Caucus convention today with Nihad Awad, the CAIR leader who said he was "happy to see" Hamas attack Israel on Oct. 7. https://t.co/qNE5deGuDs
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 3, 2026

The AMDC listed Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the House minority whip, first among the featured speakers, along with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris “Martini” Van Hollen (D-Md.); Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Al Green (D-Tex.); Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and an unsavory gaggle of state senators and representatives. The roster was a rogue’s gallery of unhinged leftist ideologues, crackpots, and grandstanders, but the most arresting name on the AMDC speaker list was that of Nihad Awad.

When Hamas brutally massacred 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Nihad Awad, CAIR’s cofounder and longtime executive director, expressed his happiness: “The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.”

CAIR operative Hussam Ayloush said the same thing in a Dec. 1, 2023 Friday sermon in Oklahoma City (his name is misspelled as “Aylush” at the link, but it’s definitely the CAIR operative Ayloush). It’s a specious argument that might impress the ignorant, but it dissolves upon a moment’s thought.

In the first place, Israel is not an occupying power in Gaza (or anywhere else, for that matter). There has not been a single Israeli in Gaza since 2005. And the idea that an occupying power has no right to self-defense is absurd. Did the Allies have no right to self-defense in Germany or Japan after World War II? Occupation is not unjust or immoral in itself, and by every standard of international law, Israel is not illegally occupying the land on which Hamas carried out its massacres on October 7.

Even Awad’s friends who were in the White House at the time were alarmed. The Biden regime announced in December 2023, according to the New York Post, that it had dropped CAIR from a commission it had put together to craft a national strategy on combating antisemitism.

Yes, CAIR was part of the White House’s campaign to combat antisemitism, and that was ridiculous enough in the first place. But at least the Biden wonks had the residual decency to drop CAIR from this group once Awad delivered his revolting remarks.

And Awad’s statements were not a one-off. Awad’s CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman, Omar Ahmad, as well as its chief spokesman, Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper, have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.)

CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager in 2019 was an open supporter of Hamas.

Yet these leftist politicians will pay no political price for appearing with this man says a great deal of how low the Democrats have sunk. In fact, if any of the people on this roster ever dared to appear with a foe of jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women, that would be the career-ender. Not this.

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