Rep. Jeff Van Drew explains why he left the Democratic Party to join the GOP
The push to impeach President Trump was the final straw, says New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew.
For the second day in a row, newly minted Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey defended his exit from the Democratic Party after he voted against both articles of impeachment.
“I believe strongly in what I did," said Van Drew, whose party crossover stunned Washington.
Speaking on “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning, Van Drew said he received “a lot less” anger from Democrats regarding the switch than he thought he would, adding that he had “such a good reaction and so much support and welcoming by Republicans.”
“So many Democrats that we meet say, ‘Jeff, you know, we like you as from whatever, in any way that you run, because we know that you’re independent and we know that you believe in what you say and you do what you believe,’ so I think that it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I thought it might have been,” Van Drew said.
“But it’s a big step and a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Boy, you know, it took a lot of, I guess intestinal fortitude is a nice way to say it, to go forward and do this,’ and I believe strongly in what I did.”
He added, “I hope to really work well with my Republican colleagues. I want to achieve greatness, I want to help the president. I think we can have a wonderful year in 2020.”
Van Drew made his comments on “Fox & Friends” one day after telling Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that the Democrats' arguments for impeaching President Trump are “weak” and "thin” and lambasted his former party for bringing them against the president.
The congressman, who last week met with Trump following his announcement that he was joining the Republican Party, said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he has been mulling over a switch to the GOP for a while, but impeachment was the tipping point.
VAN DREW DEFENDS SWITCH TO GOP, CALLS IMPEACHMENT OF TRUMP 'WEAK, THIN'
Rumblings of a possible party switch in the midst of Democrat-led impeachment proceedings against Trump caused members of Van Drew's caucus to accuse him of trying to save his bid for reelection. The move also led to the resignations of five aides from his office.
On Monday, Van Drew reiterated what he called the “final point.”
“I was speaking to one of the county chairs and as I spoke to that chair, he said that, ‘I just want to tell you something. You absolutely are going to vote for impeachment,’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not,’” Van Drew said.
“I think that this is a very weak impeachment. I think it wasted millions of dollars, hours of time, has not been productive, has split the country apart, has caused a fractioning of the country and literally has caused civil unrest in a sense.”
Van Drew added, “He said, ‘Well I’m telling you, if you want to run in this county, you’re going to have to vote for it, you’re going to have to obey,’ and the bottom line was that was the final point.”
Van Drew admitted on Monday that if the House had not voted to impeach President Trump for "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress" related to his dealings with Ukraine, he would have considered staying a Democrat.
“There were all of these other issues and I could tell you what some of the other issues were where I believed differently, but I kind of went along,” Van Drew said on “Fox & Friends.”
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“But that issue really, the fact that … because I’m going to vote in a way I don’t want to vote, you’re going to force me and then you’re going to allow me to run. That’s not what America is about. That’s not what our election system should be about.”
Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.