Colleges have failed miserably when their students mount pro-Hamas protests, says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, whose resolution condemning the terrorist attacks and their cheerleaders on campus passed the Senate Thursday.

The resolution, approved by voice vote, had earlier been blocked by Senate Democrats. But on Thursday, they yielded to the force of Hawley’s moral clarity.

“I think what changed is, Democrats just couldn’t defend these pro-Hamas students anymore,” Hawley said in an exclusive interview with The Hearlander. “How can you say that it is OK, all right, for students to go out there and say, ‘Let’s kill Jews. Let’s celebrate the terrorists as martyrs.’ They’re not martyrs. They’re scumbags. These are murderers. These are people who shot women and children in their beds, defenseless and in their own homes, who went and shot soldiers as they were asleep in their barracks, who beheaded babies. Babies! 

“I mean, these are unbelievable scumbags. The worst of the worst. 

“And the idea that on our campuses you’d have students celebrating it is just unconscionable. Clearly, clearly, these colleges have failed these students. They don’t know right from wrong, up from down. And I think you just can’t defend it. And frankly, when I pushed [senators] again today, there was no one who was willing to take the side of the Hamas demonstrators. And I’m glad, because we need to send the message that what they are doing is wrong and that we need to stand with Israel.”

Since the Senate vote on his resolution was by acclamation, it’s not really certain how unanimous the sentiment was among Hawley’s colleagues.

Would the Senate have condemned the terrorism with one voice in a public roll-call vote?

“I don’t know about that,” Hawley muses. “You know, it’s an interesting thing. They didn’t want to have an actual vote on it. It passed without objection, but that’s just because nobody came down (to demur). I’m not sure [about the vote total] if there was a roll call vote. You look over in the House, and you’ve got a number of Democrats just [Wednesday] who wouldn’t vote for a simple resolution saying that we stand with Israel. 

“That’s not hard at all. I think you’ve got a lot of folks, unfortunately, who are basically pro-Hamas, and that really tells you something.”

Hawley says the antisemitism exploding across American college campuses and cities is not only despicable, but dangerous – making the Senate’s resolution condemning it all the more vital.

“What’s happening is, Jewish Americans are getting assaulted. They’re getting attacked. Just [Wednesday] night at a college in New York, Jewish students were barricaded in a library for over an hour because pro-Hamas demonstrators were threatening them physically. I mean, think about that: The 21st century, in the United States, and Jewish students aren’t safe on their own campus. 

“There’s something seriously wrong, and this is why I say again, these colleges have failed these students. These students don’t know right from wrong, good from evil. This is why we need to be clear about this. It is wrong to try and kill Jews. This should not be hard. And it’s wrong to try and assault Jewish Americans. We’ve got to call this out and condemn it.”

So, why has the Biden administration been handing billions over to Iran, and millions to Hamas-controlled Gaza?

“I don’t know if it’s just because they’re imbeciles or because they don’t care about the safety of the United States,” Hawley replies. “Joe Biden gave out $6 billion to Iran as they were working with Hamas to plan these attacks. He has been sending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to Gaza. And now American hostages are being held there by these terrorists. 

“Every American needs to be brought home. We shouldn’t consider a dime more to that region until every American hostage is safely home.”

Hawley made that very point Wednesday in an op-ed at FoxNews.com, noting that U.N.-run schools in Gaza “employ teachers who celebrate terrorist ‘martyrs’ and call the firebombing of Jewish buses a ‘barbecue party.’ And as even the U.N. now admits, Hamas has used its school buildings to stockpile and shoot rockets.”

After the Trump administration had pulled those funds, Hawley notes, “Unconscionably, the Biden administration resumed this U.N. funding – to the tune of $344 million in 2022.”

Even after the savage Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel and Hamas’ continued holding of American hostages, Hawley writes, “Biden proposes lavishing these groups with still more money.”

Meanwhile, the senator utterly basted the Biden administration Wednesday for tacitly approving of massive sex and child trafficking at the U.S. southern border. In now-viral Senate committee questioning of Robin Dunn Marcos, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Hawley launched a barrage of angry attacks on the Biden-created child migrant crisis and the 85,000 children the administration has lost all track of.

Why is the administration letting the child trafficking continue unabated?

“You know, I just think that they are so committed to open borders that they just don’t care what the consequences are,” Hawley told The Heartlander. “And if it means that you’ve got hundreds of thousands of kids – kids, now, 12, 13, 14 years old, sometimes younger – who are sold into sex slavery, who are sold into servitude – they’re working heavy machinery, they’re working overnight at factories, they’re not being paid … 

“This is all illegal. And the Biden administration is doing nothing about it. They’re facilitating it – because they’re letting the cartels run these kids across the border. It is unbelievable to me, and it’s a total failure of leadership and also just of moral courage. 

“And I think it’s because they want an open border, consequences be damned. And if it means that these kids have to suffer – ‘meh, at least the border is open.’ 

“I tell you, there’s going to be a steep price to pay for that.’