Bob Patterson: Democrat Jeff Van Drew a ‘Closet Liberal,’ Could Still Back Impeachment

By Sean Moran
Dec. 8, 2019

Conservative Bob Patterson told Breitbart News Saturday that Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) is a “closet liberal” who still might vote for impeachment.

Patterson, a conservative running to unseat Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) in New Jersey’s second congressional district, released an op-ed in the Press of Atlantic City, charging that President Trump’s America First agenda could revitalize depressed areas of southern New Jersey.

Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle asked Patterson about Rep. Van Drew, who is one of two Democrats that have voted against a resolution that would formalize the rules and procedures surrounding the impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Patterson said that he believes that Van Drew is a “closet liberal” who continues to give himself an option to vote for impeachment despite his signaling against impeachment.

The Republican candidate said that Van Drew “serves a Republican district; he knows that if he came out for impeachment, he would be a dead man walking. So, even in coming out against the impeachment inquiry, he still has a caveat that he might vote for impeachment when it comes down to the vote. Now, this week, he said he doesn’t plan to vote for impeachment unless something else comes out, so he’s giving himself an out if he votes for impeachment.”

Patterson added, “He parses his words very carefully, he has a very liberal voting record. He is a closet liberal; he votes 94 percent against Trump and 84 percent of the time with AOC.”

New Jersey’s second congressional district represents one of the 31 congressional districts that President Trump won during the 2016 election, but Democrats managed to flip during the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans need to take back only 19 congressional districts to take back the House majority.

Boyle noted that the road to a Republican majority goes through New Jersey’s second congressional district.

Patterson echoed President Trump’s populist rhetoric, railing against bad trade policies that have hollowed out America’s manufacturing base to the benefit of the country’s ruling class.

He explained, “Like Trump districts that voted for him in ‘16, economically, we could be doing a lot better. The region has been ignored for 30 years, there’s been no new major transportation improvements. We’ve had factories close, we’ve had a lower level of unemployment relative to other areas of New Jersey and relative to southeastern Pennsylvania, but it is a ripe district for President Trump.”

“You might call it the Acela corridor, the Wall Street/Washington axis of power that has also benefitted Silicon Valley. So you have very narrow sectors of the country that have benefitted tremendously. So the political class, and even the corporate class. The corporate class has even moved jobs overseas. They’ve benefitted, but the rest of the country and especially the middle class has been decimated, and this is why the president was elected in ‘16. We need to support him in reelection next year, and places like south Jersey can once again be the power center it used to be,” Patterson added.

Patterson concluded, saying that even if Van Drew votes “against impeachment whenever this comes up, he is still in trouble and that’s why I’m running, and there’s hope for winning back this district for President Trump next year.”