As the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump continue to heat up, less than a statistical margin of error’s worth of Congressional Democrats have decided against supporting the process. One of those — New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, who flipped his seat from the GOP in 2018 — has formulated plans to switch his party registration to Republican, and now, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has offered his old staffers’ jobs following their post-party switch announcement resignation. In other words, neither Van Drew’s attention-seeking nor the GOP’s touting of his stances will erode the Democratic intent to hold the president accountable.
Van Drew staffers who’ve already resigned include deputy chiefs of staff Justin O’Leary and Edward Kaczmarski, legislative director Javier Gamboa, communications director Mackenzie Lucas, and legislative staff assistant Caroline Wood. Including a link to a story about the resignations, current DCCC Chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos (Ill.) tweeted this week that the organization she leads would be offering them jobs.
She shared:
‘It’s right before the holidays and these staffers just quit their jobs to stand up for their Democratic values. We’ll bring them and others who leave on with the @dccc until they land new jobs that align with their values.’
It's right before the holidays and these staffers just quit their jobs to stand up for their Democratic values. We'll bring them and others who leave on with the @dccc until they land new jobs that align with their values. (1/2)https://t.co/MqWVsnAGcN
— Cheri Bustos (@CheriBustos) December 16, 2019
After the above, she invited observers to donate for a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee for the seat in 2020 — which, thanks to Van Drew’s plans, will again be an election in which the party is fighting to flip the seat.
Van Drew has apparently even met with the president himself recently, and Trump has already publicly praised the Congressman. He’s claimed that Van Drew’s switch represents courageous action on a supposedly widespread opposition to impeachment among Democrats — but there’s no evidence for that. Van Drew is essentially on his own here.
Democrats have pointed to his planned switch as indicative of political maneuvering rather than some kind of actual systematic policy issue. Recent polling showed that a majority of Democratic voters in his district wanted to nominate another candidate in 2020.
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy noted:
‘Betraying our values by siding with Donald Trump is the final straw and made it impossible for him to continue being supported by our party, as grassroots activists, local party leaders in his district, and I have made clear in recent weeks.’
Check out Twitter’s response to the DCCC stepping in below…
