Aides quit over Democrat’s plan to switch to GOP
Nearly all of Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s Washington staff resigned over the weekend as both Democrats and Republicans criticized the moderate New Jersey Democrat’s apparent decision to switch parties just as the House prepares to undertake its historic vote on articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Van Drew, who hails from a conservative district that for 24 years before his election was represented by a Republican, is one of only two Democrats who voted against rules laying out the impeachment process.
“Sadly, Congressman Van Drew’s decision to join the ranks of Republican Party led by Donald Trump does not align with the values we brought to this job when we joined his office,’’ according to a letter from the five staff members, a copy of which was provided to the New York
Times.
NBC News reported that a sixth staffer had also resigned. A seventh person also resigned, according to a person familiar with the situation in Van Drew’s office, leaving his chief of staff as the sole remaining staff member in his Washington office.
Van Drew’s decision drew bipartisan condemnations and is certain to become a dominant issue when he runs for reelection next year.
A Republican running for his seat called him a weasel who was not to be trusted. A Democratic foe labeled him a traitor. The governor of New Jersey said he lacked the courage to protect the Constitution.
“This is the end of his career,” said David Richter, a Republican businessman who has been campaigning for Van Drew’s seat in Congress since August and referred to him Sunday as a “weasel."
“If I have to put $1 million of my own money into this race, to win, I’m prepared to do it.”
Van Drew did not return calls. But the freshman congressman who is up for reelection next year has told aides he is preparing to switch parties as soon as this week.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News several weeks ago, Van Drew said that Trump would likely survive an impeachment process given Republican control of the Senate and that voters, not Congress, should decide Trump’s fate.
“At the end of the day, I’m afraid all we’re going to have is a failed impeachment,” he said, adding: “The bottom line is he’s still going to be the president of the United States, and the bottom line is he is still going to be the candidate of 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.”
Richter, 53, said he had been told by Republican leaders in the district that crosses Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic counties that Trump was expected to endorse Van Drew.
Still, he said he had no plans to step aside to clear an easy path to the Republican nomination for Van Drew.
Gov. Philip Murphy, speaking on CNN, predicted that Van Drew would be defeated.
“He’s putting politics over the Constitution,” Murphy said. “I think it’s ridiculous.”
Van Drew’s district sprawls across the southern part of New Jersey, from Atlantic City west toward the Pennsylvania border.