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Democratic Rep. Warns That All His Party Has Coming Is ‘A Failed Impeachment’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew isn’t towing the party line — the Democratic Party line — with regard to impeachment.

Van Drew explained his position Wednesday to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, citing both political and practical reasons for his stance.

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Carlson began the segment by introducing Van Drew, saying that he was a relatively conservative Democrat who was standing firm against the move to impeach President Donald Trump. “The easy thing would be to go along with your party’s leadership on this question but you are not. Why?” he asked.

“I have never been good at that to begin with,” Van Drew smiled. “Just very briefly, people will say, you know, your job is to be a good Democrat or a good Republican and I keep emphasizing your responsibility and job is to be a good American. So I go with what I believe in my heart is right and in my brain.”

Van Drew went on to explain that, to his way of thinking, there were a number of achievable goals that Congress could be pursuing that would be a more efficient use of their time and the taxpayers’ money — Healthcare, prescription drugs, infrastructure, election security —  “I can give you a whole long list, Tucker,” he said. (RELATED: Reporter Asks Trump What He’d Say If Obama Had Asked Foreign Leader For Dirt On Him)

“The point is I really believe the more that we delve into this the more time we spend on it especially in a macro-level, the more we are not going to be able to spend time on these other issues that are important,” Van Drew continued. “And it’s not because we can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Somebody brought that up. We can walk and chew gum. The problem is when we are this divided and this split and two political parties and all going on people are not going to work together.”

Van Drew said that his main concern was that while the House pursued the proposed inquiry, nothing would get done because the current divisions between the parties would only get worse. He argued that the president would refuse to sign bills, the Democrat-controlled House would ignore bills from the Republican-held Senate and vice versa.

“At the end of the day, I am afraid that all we are going to have is a failed impeachment,” Van Drew said. “Folks need to understand, I mean maybe there are those that want to punish the president or make a point and I understand that. But the bottom line is he is still going to be the President of the United States and the bottom line is he is still going to be the candidate for the Republican Party. So why don’t we let the people do the impeachment by voting in the electoral process the way that we usually do?”

“You mean democracy?” Carlson asked.

“Absolutely. I love it,” Van Drew agreed.