Clinton's comments about protesters off the mark, Chris Van Hollen says

Sen. Chris Van Hollen knocked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s controversial comments about young pro-Palestinian protesters as “quite dismissive” Sunday.

“I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now,” Clinton said during an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday. “They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or, frankly, about history, in many areas of the world, including in our own country.”

Clinton’s remarks were in response to the massive pro-Palestinian protests that have erupted on college campuses across the country, in some cases leading schools to cancel or alter graduation ceremonies.

But Van Hollen pushed back on Clinton’s comments in an interview with host Margaret Brennan on CBS' "Face the Nation."

“I thought, Margaret, that Secretary Clinton's comments, in that regard, were quite dismissive of students' concerns about the awful humanitarian crisis and high civilian death toll in Gaza,” Van Hollen said Sunday.

Students should be able to feel safe on campus, and antisemitism shouldn’t be allowed to fester, he noted.

“But I believe that the great majority of the students are protesting, are following very closely what's happening in Gaza. They see what's a very high civilian death toll,” he said.

"I believe that the overwhelming majority of the students — not all and there are some, there are some very bad elements that are involved, as well as on the counter-protests side. But I believe that the students do understand what's happening in Gaza with respect to the civilian casualties," he added.