Fox News "Sunday Morning Features" - Transcript Interview with Jeff Van Drew

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I'm pleased to welcome back to the program Congressman Jeff Van Drew. He sits on the House Homeland Security and Labor and Education committees.

Congressman, good morning to you. It is great to see once again this morning.

REP. JEFF VAN DREW (R-NJ): It's great to see you, Maria.

And before we start, I just have to ask one big favor. I would love to get an autographed copy of that book.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, Congressman. You have a deal. You got a deal, "The Cost."

VAN DREW: Good deal.

BARTIROMO: I'm excited. It's been a great -- a great time putting it together. Thank you, Congressman.

Look, you represent the middle, in my eyes. You're a GOP Congressman, I know that, but you were a Democrat before that. And you have always come on this program and had such practical ideas with everything.

Give us first your assessment from the middle. Give us your assessment of what's going on with this -- this division going on in the Congress.

VAN DREW: Well, first of all, I mean, I do believe in the middle, I have always been moderate to conservative in my viewpoints.

So, examples of that would be, I believe that we have to have a good health care system in the United States of America. And we just can't take away health care, until we have something really good to replace it with, that we have to cover preexisting conditions.

Those are the types of things where I'm in the middle, or that we have child care. With all the changes that have happened with COVID and what's going on in our world and our country, I think, for so many people needing -- and we want to get them out to work. Child care is something that I think the government does need to look at.

But, on the other hand, the complete other extreme is that you see, in New Jersey, for example, I was just reading, that they're literally going to give professional licenses to those that are undocumented, open borders the types of things that we don't believe in and are really extreme.

And there's just a whole host of them in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party used to be more moderate. It is not now. It has changed. It is a new party.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

VAN DREW: And it is not just political rhetoric, Maria, to say that much of the party is really going towards a socialist bent. They really are.

BARTIROMO: Well, they also want to defund the police.

Has it been hijacked by the likes of AOC and Elizabeth Warren?

VAN DREW: And I will -- let me be clear. I want to be really clear on this.

In any profession, there's one bad apple or a few. But the police, our police force and our emergency folks, what they do is amazing. There are very few examples where people run to danger, very few examples where people put their life on the line, very few examples...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

VAN DREW: ... where they're willing to take that chance.

BARTIROMO: Exactly.

VAN DREW: They keep us safe. They keep us -- they keep our cities safe. Look...

BARTIROMO: Right. And the president -- the president said this week -- the president said this week, you -- one thing you won't hear from me, if I get reelected, is trashing the police.

Stay with us, Jeff Van Drew.

We have got more right after this short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: We're back with New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew.

Congressman, we were just talking about the division in the Congress. It doesn't help when you have things like Speaker Pelosi, who's supposed to be the speaker of the House of Representatives, but she always trashes her colleagues on the right, which is just -- you can't be the speaker of everybody, if that's what you're going to do.

But, the other day, she said it was the Trump virus. Something so important as the coronavirus that has killed 140,000 Americans, and we have got 40 million people out of work, you would think that everybody was on board with blaming China, knowing that it originated in Wuhan and they covered it up for so long, Congressman.

VAN DREW: Yes, absolutely right. I can't believe she said that. It was so disappointing.

We have to bring people together. It doesn't mean we're all going to agree. But we have to come together for the future of America. It was President Trump who actually put the travel restrictions in early. He was then said that he was racist for doing so. Thank God he did. He saved a lot of lives.

And for her to say that is absolutely outrageous, when we know it was China that didn't give us the information, China that wouldn't let the CDC come in. It was China, God knows, that influenced the WHO to give the wrong information out.

All this information was incorrect that came out initially. And it's probably China who produced the virus in a laboratory. And we don't even really know what's really going on there as well, or whether there's possible mutations.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Wow.

VAN DREW: So, that was a ridiculous and absurd thing to say.

Nobody wants this virus in America.

BARTIROMO: Well...

VAN DREW: And we have to come together to fight it, not to hurt each other.

BARTIROMO: So -- well, what about Joe Biden? Is he going to be the right guy to lead us into a new era with China...

VAN DREW: No.

BARTIROMO: ... knowing that he actually has relationships there, as does his son?

VAN DREW: This China issue is amazingly important. And I'm glad you're focusing in on it.

When it comes to the supply chain, you know what we have to do as we go into the next cycle and to -- after the next election? We have to make sure that we have a supply chain that is our own, that we manufacture our goods, that we're manufacturing our prescription drugs.

You know what was particularly hurtful?

BARTIROMO: Well, that's not a priority of Joe Biden. I know that's not a priority of Joe Biden.

VAN DREW: No, it's not. It's not.

And I don't -- I don't agree with them. We are -- we have been soft on this...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

VAN DREW: ... and have gotten hurt for years, because people haven't stood up.

We're finally standing up. And it's the right thing to do.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, it's great to see you this morning. Please come back soon.

Don't be a stranger, Congressman Jeff Van Drew.

Have a great Sunday, everybody. Thanks for joining us.

I will see you next week on "Mornings With Maria" on FOX Business.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

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