Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) criticized the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry on Sunday, stating that it has been costing American’s time and money, and merely resulting in the fracturing of the United States.
“I just think we keep going down this road – keep spending more time, you know, many of us came to Congress because we really wanted to accomplish goals, really work on issues such as health care, work on issues dealing with prescription drugs, election security, the debt, the deficit, you know, the list goes on, and I can speak on an on about all the things that we need to do,” Van Drew told Fox News Host Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures. “I just don’t think that we’re hearing anything new.”
“And real quickly, we must understand the importance and level of what impeachment is,” he continued. “Hundreds of years of history and no one has ever been convicted of impeachment and that is the point.”
Dem Rep calls out Democrats for “fracturing the nation” with impeachment inquiry
pic.twitter.com/ed0N3N5lBn— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 17, 2019
House Democrats announced in September that they would be moving forward with an impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower reportedly accused President Donald Trump of asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for using his position as vice president to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor who was looking into his son’s business dealings.
The reports were not confirmed at the time of the announcement, and it was not until a day later that the White House released a transcript of Trump’s exchange with Zelensky. After the transcript was made public, many have argued that it fails to show the direct quid pro quo agreement initially alleged.
Democrats, however, have vowed to move forward with impeachment proceedings, and have subsequently followed through on that pledge. In October, the House voted on a resolution establishing the process for the investigation into the president. The measure passed largely along party lines, 232-196, with only two Democrats defecting on the vote.
Van Drew, a Blue Dog Democrat, was notably one of the only members of his caucus who broke with the ranks and voted against advancing the impeachment inquiry. The freshman congressman represents a district that he was able to flip blue during the 2018 election cycle, but that Trump carried in 2016.
The New Jersey lawmaker has not been shy about voicing his opposition to the impeachment proceedings, even earning praise for his stance from the president.
….we are going to have an Election very shortly.” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Democrat of New Jersey. @foxandfriends Thank you. Just another Witch Hunt by Nancy Pelosi and the Do Nothing Democrats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
“We’re going to have an election next year, let us have the election, let us fight through the election,” Van Drew said. “Let’s do what Republicans and Democrats and whomever else does, but this is going to get us nowhere.”
“We’ve spent millions of dollars, in my opinion, tons of money, tons of time, tons of hurt, fracturing the nation apart and I haven’t seen this to be a good thing,” he continued. “And now we are dealing with all sorts of technical issues, most of Americans don’t understand some of these technical issues, and they just don’t know really what to think.”