Hunter Biden “is a criminal” and belongs behind bars after defying a congressional subpoena, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said in an interview with The Heartlander Thursday.

Meanwhile, a Biden judicial nominee is unfit for confirmation due to his involvement with pro-Palestinian groups that have consorted with at least one terrorist, Hawley says.

President Biden’s son has already been indicted on federal tax and firearms charges on two coasts, and was scheduled to appear for a deposition in a closed House session Wednesday about his infamous foreign business dealings involving millions. Instead, he violated the congressional subpoena and addressed the media defiantly outside the Capitol – leading to likely contempt of Congress charges.

“Well, he ought to be held in contempt of Congress,” Hawley said. “If the Democrats do that to all of the Trump folks who did nothing wrong and haven’t been charged with any crimes …

“Hunter Biden is a criminal. We all know if his last name wasn’t Biden, he’d already be in prison. He would have been in prison years ago. This is a guy who sold access to his father when he was vice president – probably since he’s been president – made gobs of money on it, looks like he paid off his dad as well. 

“And now he’s what – just going to walk away scot-free? I hope that they hold him in contempt. And I hope he’s soon behind bars. And I’m glad the House is doing an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden that is long overdue.

“The Biden family looks like one giant crime syndicate, and it’s time the American people got the facts about it.”

The younger Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” the special counsel said about the nine-count tax fraud indictment against him. Those charges alone could bring 17 years in prison.

But it’s allegations that the president’s son sold access to his father for millions to foreign actors, including to those with ties to America’s fiercest adversaries, that has him in hot water in Congress.

House Republicans, even before the formal approval of an impeachment inquiry Wednesday, had already compiled phone, email and bank records they say will tie the president to his son’s influence-peddling schemes.

‘Wildly unfit for confirmation’ 

Also on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Biden’s nominee for the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Adeel Abdullah Mangi, was grilled at his confirmation hearing by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Hawley, who are wary of his pro-Palestinian ties.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that as an advisory board member of Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race and Rights, Mangi “served on the board of a Muslim advocacy group that has blamed Israel for provoking Hamas’s terrorist attack and hosted an event with a convicted terrorist fundraiser on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. …

“During his time on the board, the think tank feted anti-Israel college students and marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks with an event featuring a terrorist fundraiser. … 

“In 2021, the Center for Security, Race and Rights hosted an event on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that featured Sami al-Arian, a former professor who helped fund the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It promoted an event, ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS): Globalized Palestinian Resistance to Israel’s Settler Colonialism and Apartheid,’ with Hatem Bazian, the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel group that has pushed pro-Hamas rhetoric.

“Last year, the center held an event with the activist group Palestine Legal to provide ‘legal strategy’ to anti-Israel college students. An official from Palestine Legal has a history of praising Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, the Washington Free Beacon [has previously] reported.

“The center has maintained its anti-Israel views in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. The think tank said that to condemn Hamas was to ‘ignore over 75 years of colonial violence and the horrific consequences born out of these decades of oppression and attempted erasure.’”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted Mangi’s nomination on the Senate floor in no uncertain terms.

“Over the past three years, our colleagues on the committee have met and considered an alarming parade of nominees whose conduct or lack of legal qualifications made them so wildly unfit for confirmation that they had to be withdrawn. … Is the Biden administration really asking the Senate to give life tenure on the court of appeals to a nominee with an extensive record of condoning terrorist propaganda?”

The Heartlander asked Hawley if Mangi is among the “parade” of Biden judicial nominees “so wildly unfit for confirmation that they had to be withdrawn.”

“God, he should be,” Hawley said. “This is a guy who cannot say that Israel is not a colonial state, that Israel is not an apartheid state, that Israel is not an oppressor state. I asked him all of those questions yesterday, and all he said was, ‘Well, there needs to be context. It’s a complex issue.’

“Israel’s right to exist is not complex. It’s really simple. Israel’s right to defend itself is not complex. It’s really simple. And the fact that all of these liberals, whether it’s on campus or people who want lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary, cannot just come out and say, ‘You know what, Israel should be able to defend itself’ – why is that so hard? People like this do not deserve to be on the bench for life.

“This guy sat on a board at Rutgers University. They actually invited a terrorist, a convicted terrorist, to come and talk about 9/11, to talk about his point of view on 9/11. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that a convicted terrorist who tried to blow up people, I don’t really think he has a valid point of view. Call me crazy, but I don’t really think that is a valid educational purpose.

“Just imagine what your tax dollars are being used for at universities, public and private, all across this nation. It’s insanity, and guys like this judicial nominee who sit by and facilitate this stuff and enable this stuff and won’t condemn this stuff, they should not be on the bench. Period.”