Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Rep. Jeff Van Drew says his constituents are 'worn out' by the Mueller investigation
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
We just heard from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. The South Carolina Republican said that sensitive material from the nearly 400- page-long Mueller report should be redacted before it is released sometime in April.
Some Democrats, though, are pushing for the full report with no redactions. And they want that by this Tuesday, their deadline.
Let's bring in New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a member of the Blue Dog Coalition and problem Solvers Caucus.
Congressman, it's good to see you again this morning. Thanks so much for being here.
Your reaction to all of this, Mueller report, and this push from your colleagues wanting the report ASAP?
REP. JEFF VAN DREW, D-N.J.: Real quickly, before we get into that, I just want to congratulate you on five great years.
As I said to you before, your intellectual honesty, your hard work, your willingness to listen to another viewpoint, you're a special person. This is a special show. Congratulations.
BARTIROMO: Oh, my goodness. Congressman, thank you so much for that. I'm honored. I appreciate that.
VAN DREW: You're very welcome.
BARTIROMO: Thank you.
VAN DREW: Well, it's true. And as far as -- look, certain areas do have to be redacted, for the safety of the people that are involved, because of the law itself, because of the nature of this counsel. This is special counsel and it is a different situation.
And it certainly requires that we do this carefully and thoroughly. It's going to come out in a relatively very short period of time. Everybody's going to get to look at everything. Both sides of the aisle want to see it. And then, hopefully, we are done with it.
BARTIROMO: Yes, I mean, what do you think about your colleagues continuing to push this narrative? You got Adam Schiff saying, oh, yes, the collusion is in plain sight and Eric Swalwell saying, oh, yes, there's collusion, and we know it, and we want to subpoena the attorney general.
Meanwhile, here you are in the middle, Blue Dog Coalition, trying to do things and come up with ideas to actually move the needle on growth and impact people's lives. I'm going to get into your ideas on health care and on drilling off the coast and why you think that that's also gotten bipartisan support, by the way.
And yet your colleagues are all in on just trying to take Donald Trump down.
VAN DREW: I'm telling you -- and I have said this before -- I get out in the street a lot. I talk to people a lot. I campaign a lot. I like to mix with people a lot. I get back to my district just about every single week.
And people ask me about health care. And they ask me about public safety. And they ask me about what's going on, on the border. And they ask me about Veterans Affairs. And they ask me about health care and many, many other issues.
You know what they don't ask me about?
(LAUGHTER)
VAN DREW: They don't ask me about the investigation.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
VAN DREW: They're getting worn out. They're getting tired.
We have got to wrap this thing up on both sides. Let's stop calling for Trump's impeachment. We're going to have an election in a year-and-a-half. Let's stop doing so much with this investigation. We're going to get all the facts. And all the information is going to be revealed to us.
If folks want to look on the other side and see what sparked the whole thing to begin with, and really how it came about, fine, but let's not prolong that forever either.
I don't know why it's so unbelievably hard for us to come together on many, not all -- there's always going to be differences -- but on many of the major issues and get stuff done.
BARTIROMO: Yes. I agree with you.
VAN DREW: That is why we are elected.
BARTIROMO: Especially since most people...
VAN DREW: And that -- and if you go out into the street...
BARTIROMO: Yes, especially since most people in America are hanging out in the middle.
You might lean to the right on some things...
VAN DREW: They are hanging out in the middle.
BARTIROMO: ... and lean to the left on other things, but you just -- you want what everybody wants, safety, security, family. So, it's crazy.
Where are the areas that you can work with the -- with the Republicans on? I mentioned drilling off the coast.
VAN DREW: I...
BARTIROMO: This is important to you. Why? Tell us,.
VAN DREW: Well, the drilling off -- and that is an area where we actually have worked on bipartisan, as far as votes and everything else.
So we have two pieces of legislation that are important. One would prohibit the seismic testing, which is these very, very loud seismic sounds that are used to test where there could be oil underneath the ocean, very harmful to the whales, very harmful to fish and fish life, hurts the fishing industry and hurts the tourism industry, as well as drilling offshore.
And I'm not saying you can't do research other areas, but offshore our coasts, in our oceans, these are huge multibillion-dollar industries that affect people's way of life, affect their future. And we have broad bipartisan support. We had...
BARTIROMO: Right.
VAN DREW: And I have never seen this before. I almost fell down.
BARTIROMO: Yes. So, you want to...
VAN DREW: We had environmentalists, Chamber of Commerce, Republicans and Democrats.
BARTIROMO: Yes. You want to ban drilling off the coast, but you're OK with drilling in the deep -- in the deep water?
VAN DREW: If it's appropriate in certain areas.
BARTIROMO: I see.
VAN DREW: But certainly off the coast in the ocean, no.
BARTIROMO: Health care, the president said that the Republicans will become the party of health care.
This is obviously, over and over again, among the top or second most important issue for voters. How do you fix it?
VAN DREW: Because -- well, it's the top because it's so expensive. People can't afford it, number one.
And, number two, they obviously want to be healthy and be taken care of. So it really is a big issue, and where the Republicans, quite frankly -- and I call -- when I think Democrats make mistakes, I say it. When Republicans make mistakes, I say it.
They wanted to repeal Obamacare, but, absolutely, at least at that time, had no plan at all. So I want to see their plan. I want to see a substantive plan that is going to supply health care to our constituents at a lower cost, but is still going to be quality health care, still going to allow you to visit your doctor and have that relationship, and something that's going to work.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
VAN DREW: Now, I heard Senator Graham. It's an intriguing idea.
But I really want to know, is that going to supply -- it needs to be looked at more. The devil is in the details with this.
BARTIROMO: Well, we know all of that...
VAN DREW: How is the health care going be in New Jersey and every state?
BARTIROMO: What you just said is not Medicare for all. And that's Bernie Sanders' plan.
VAN DREW: No.
BARTIROMO: And that's what many of the hopeful...
VAN DREW: I do not support that.
BARTIROMO: Yes. One of the -- many of the hopefuls to 2020 have -- have endorsed that plan.
They're also endorsing the Green New Deal. But look what happened last week, when everybody had a chance to actually put their money where their mouth was. They were either present or no vote. They were not there.
It got a big thumbs down, something that you were early on in saying, this makes no sense.
VAN DREW: Early on. It doesn't make any sense, costs trillions of dollars.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
VAN DREW: We could never afford it. It would completely change our lifestyle.
Because of the very nature of -- and you can't even call it a plan -- of whatever it is. It's a number of amorphous ideas.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
VAN DREW: You can't keep the same form of capitalistic government that we even have to do.
And let me talk about -- same thing with Medicare. If our seniors are worried about Medicare, they really should worry if we have Medicare for all.
BARTIROMO: Yes. Well...
VAN DREW: We just have to make sure that we can supply the Medicare that we have for our seniors now and keep that commitment.
BARTIROMO: Yes. It's -- increasingly, it's looking like a race of capitalism vs. socialism. It really is.
Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thank you so much. We will be watching the developments. And we thank you for your time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source