Democrat lawmaker breaks with Pelosi on impeachment, says he’s seen no offense by Trump

A New Jersey Democrats has once again broken from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others in his party, noting in an interview that he still is not supportive of the move to impeach President Donald Trump.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew told USA Today in an interview published over the weekend that his “job isn’t really to like or dislike” the president.

“My job is to exact as much goodwill and help for my district and for this nation and for this world that I possibly can while he’s president,” he said.

Van Drew noted that while he wasn’t thrilled with the president’s dealings with Ukraine, which are the subject of the impeachment inquiry, he said thus far he’s seen no impeachable offenses after several months of closed-door and public hearings.

Van Drew, 66, was also quick to note that in all of the country’s history, no president has been ‘convicted’ of impeachable offenses by the Senate and removed from office.

To have a “small, elite group” of lawmakers attempt to remove a president less than a year before an election is indefensible and un-American, Van Drew told the paper.

“To some folks, that’s reminiscent of what was done to kings and queens many years ago,” Van Drew said. “Everything our country doesn’t stand for.”

Van Drew and longtime Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, were the only two Democrats to oppose the only procedural vote on impeachment held by the House thus far.

No Republicans thus far have supported impeaching the president.

USA Today even noted that some fence-sitting Republicans like retiring Rep. Will Hurd of Texas have said they have not seen any impeachable offenses.

If the House returns articles of impeachment, it takes 67 senators to vote to convict, thereby removing the president from office.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said there is no chance of getting that much support.