Democrat insists Joe Biden 'will get out there' to college campuses as anti-Semitic protests rallying support for Palestine engulf universities across the country

A top Democrat and Biden campaign surrogate said the president will visit college campuses rocked by pro-Palestinian protests as the topic has been blossoming into a major voting issue six months out from the election.

'I think the president should and will get out there on campuses,' Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said in an interview with CBS News Sunday. 

Khanna's office and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when the potential college visit could happen.  

The California Democrat has been traveling across the country, most recently to Wisconsin, meeting with students and voters to gauge their priorities for the November election.

'In Wisconsin the issues that came up first were abortion, second the cost of living and what president was going to do on student loans and for housing and rent,' Khanna said, adding that 'Gaza came up' too. 

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on CBS News Sunday that Biden will go to colleges with pro-Palestinian demonstrations occurring 

Protestors across the nation have called for their universities to divest from Israel 

'We have to understand this is a defining moment for this generation, similar to anti-Vietnam protests, anti-apartheid protests, [and] anti-Iraq war protests and they want to see leadership in America and around the world.' 

'This is not the world that they want,' Khanna continued.

Pro-Palestinian protests across U.S. colleges in recent weeks have led to thousands of arrests and constant unrest on campus as students camp out on university property often chanting through megaphones and setting up makeshift villages. 

The movement first began at Columbia University before spreading to colleges nationwide. 

Over a hundred activists were arrested at Columbia University in the early days of the 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' there, but that did not deter demonstrators who later expanded their de-facto domain by taking over a university building. 

Activists demanded the university cut ties with firms financially tied to Israel or Israeli companies. 

They also repeatedly lambasted Zionism - the belief that Jewish individuals should have their own nation - decrying that Israel should be dissolved if not destroyed. 

After weeks of attempting to negotiate with student organizers, the Columbia University President Minouche Shafik warned students that harsher penalties would be enacted on protestors like expulsion. 

Eventually the New York Police Department had to intervene by dramatically breaching the university building to remove students and activists that took over the university property.

The saga prompted separate visits from Speaker Mike Johnson and several House Democrats who all spoke out against the antisemitism on campus. 

Still, Biden has not visited any of the college campuses that have been hit by protests, though he did denounce the protests last week saying demonstrators do not have a right 'to cause chaos.'

'I think the protests and the larger movement have had the president change,' Khanna said Sunday.

'Look, everyone from the president on down is aware that young people are upset at what’s going on in the Middle East.'  

'And I do think it’s had an awakening in Washington, that this war has to end, that too many people are dying. And if you look at the president’s language, it’s certainly shifted over the last six months.'

Khanna also mentioned that there has been 'constructive dialog taking place' on college campuses, some that he has been apart of while traveling around for Biden.

A professor at the University of Texas takes part in a pro-Palestinian protest on Sunday

He also condemned activists who blur the lines between protest and calls for violence.

'You can’t be shouting ‘guillotine, guillotine.’ You can’t be shouting ‘globalize the Intifada’ or ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live.’' 

'What’s being lost is that those few protesters who are inciting violence or engaging in that kind of antisemitism are diminishing the thousands of young people who simply want the war to end.'