>> Donald Trump has proudly and officially announced the newest member of the Republican
Party.
That man you see right there, Jeff Van Drew from New Jersey from Congress.
He knows this deal in Oval Office just yesterday, and this is how it went down.
>> Jeff Van Drew, highly respected.
In fact, I didn't know as a Democrat how you could have won in that district.
I know the district very well.
But that is a great tribute to you.
But Jeff will be joining the Republican Party.
And, we were very fortunate, he voted our way yesterday, as you probably know.
And, we had a totally unified party.
I don't think this ever been a time where the Republican Party was so united.
But Jeff will be joining the Republican Party and I really, to me, it's a very exciting
announcement.
>> It is very exciting because let us go to some of the premise behind how he did it.
It had been floated for a while that Jeff Van Drew was gonna switch from Democrat to
Republican, but he waited until after this and the impeachment vote in the House, of
course.
So, that meeting in the Oval Office came one day after the House voted to nearly strictly
around party lines approved two articles of impeachment against Trump.
Might be abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as we already know.
So Van Drew voted as a Democrat on Wednesday.
He was one of three Democrats who defected and also voted against one or both of the
articles.
Republicans were unanimous of course, something Trump has cheered on, so when this happens
with Jeff Van Drew he's cheering even more.
So, Jeff Van Drew was asked Wednesday, why we was remaining a Democrat just for that
vote on impeachment?
And he said was the reason he was switching parties, he told The Hill that he felt it
was appropriate that he voted as a Democrat.
Now, what appropriate exactly means is that he gets the chance to give one more win to
Trump before he goes and pledges this loyalty.
I wanna go to that pledge really fast.
Here's Jeff Van Drew talking about how much he loves Trump.
>> I guess what I say is, I believe that this is just a better fit for me.
This is who I am, it's who I always was but there was more tolerance of moderate Democrats,
of blue dog Democrats, of conservative Democrats, and I think that's going away.
Two more things I wanna say, one, you have my undying support.
>> Thank you, thank you very much.
>> And always.
>> And by the way, same way.
>> Okay.
>> Undying support, okay.
>> It's so Godfather.
>> Yeah, it really is, it is.
It's a guy, a Captain moving from one mob family to another.
>> Yes.
>> Well, you have my undying support, okay?
>> Don Corleone Trump, okay?
>> I pledge my loyalty to you.
>> Okay, okay.
>> I wanna a red tie.
>> All right, so to two things here.
One is media side made the best point on this.
He's like, you'll always have my undying support, said the guy who just switched parties.
>> Hm, not a great track record on undying support and staying with what you said earlier.
So, perhaps a little note of caution is necessary there.
But to me, actually the most important part was when he said about how he switched over
to Republican, and he said you saw it there.
He said, it's who I always was, and that's actually true.
See these blue dog conservative Democrats, that Democratic leadership caters to non-stop.
There were always Republicans.
They vote Republican.
They are Republican.
They were using the label Democrat to trick people into voting for them.
And so that's the only thing, but since Washington is all about partisanship, and it's all about
team loyalty, when he was a Democrat voting the same exact way, with his Republican buddies,
they were like, no, he has a D on his helmet, no Democrat.
Do a progressive don't challenge the guy like Jeff Van Drew, how dare you, our beloved colleague,
Jeff Van Drew.
He's such a wonderful Democrat.
He wants the Republicans but he's a wonderful Democrat.
He votes for the corporate interests, he votes for daughters.
But how dare you isn't Deanna Zelman?
Now they're all super mad at him.
The same votes, the votes didn't change at all, okay?
But now that he's switched helmets and he has an artist helmet, all the corporate Democrats
are, how dare you, what a traitor, what a scoundrel.
The D is now an R, my God, that man.
No, no, all these conservative Democrats are in fact Republicans
>> Right.
If you notice, I'm sorry Francesca, you're gonna get to that I'm sorry disrupted.
But, this is the thing, he saw how the party is switched.
And that's why he had to go ahead and become Republican full fledged.
Because there's this progressive lean that's coming from now a few members coming into
the party and he's uncomfortable with that now.
Because we had this constant as far as Democrats, there was this constant catering to like,
we have to make sure we have this legitimacy towards being able to appeal to Republicans.
I've said it so many times was the last time you've heard Republicans say, man, 2018 we
got beaten the House, you better make sure we go ahead and feel the more progressive
cuz we're gonna keep losing.
No, they don't say that.
Justin Amash had one thing to finally say about the President.
He didn't leave that party, they kicked off of all these committees.
>> Yeah.
>> And he said, I guess I had to go numb becoming independent because they do not like me anymore.
Jeff Van Drew was not kicked out of the party.
He said, I am gonna leave now because you guys with the five of you have gone too far
to the left.
>> Yeah.
>> Just the mass got shoved, that's what the Republicans do.
>> And I think not to go back to the impeachment a little bit, but I do wanna say that just
because Democrats are good at claiming our victories does it mean we haven't won.
And so, that's a perfect example the 2018 midterms like it should signify to the other
party that, geez, we should probably like listen up and like watch our backs.
And maybe they're coming for us, maybe we should like cool it on some of these issues,
or try to work bipartisan, but they don't do that.
But, I just think that with the impeachment we have to remember none of this would be
possible, had voters not come out in record numbers.
With young people, people of color, people who traditionally in a midterm might not actually
find and have the time to go to the polls, right?
And this entire process was thanks to the fact that there was a majority of Democrats
in those committees.
And so, I don't wanna just, again I think we sort of get wrapped up in the impeachment
kinda belong to Pelosi or belonging to these centrist Democrats.
I just wanna remind us all that like we came out to vote, we came out to mobilize, and
folks around this country so like, let's not lose sight of that.
In terms of this, what a time to become a Republican from a Democrat, well now that
you're just openly calling Mexicans rapists, like, man, why not join the Republican Party.
I don't know in the 80s, I might get it in the 70s for sure or even George Bush Senior,
who was like I believe in amnesty for immigrants but now just like, yeah, now the hoods are
on, let's go for it.
>> Or maybe the hoods are off.
>> Or the hoods are off, exactly other tier.
>> So also as we looked at Jeff Van Drew talking about his pledging his loyalty, this was actually
the best part of it.
So, Katherine Faulders reported for ABC with the Forth on the White House and Capitol Hill.
She tweeted that she spoke to Jeff Van Drew right after and this what she had to say.
She was, just asked Van Drew about this, about him pledging his loyalty by the way.
This is the loyalty.
She collected the video.
I don't know if I said, did I say undying, this is Van Drew talking.
I don't think it was undying.
I usually don't speak that way.
I said I think you have my support and he does.
And she connected the video, of course.
>> He sounds like me when I'm make fun of people who are backpedaling.
Did I say undying?
I don't normally say undying.
I mean, I don't think I said undying.
Did I say it?
Cuz I thought I didn't say it, but I don't normally talk that way.
>> I meant- >> Literally what he said.
>> Undead is what I meant.
>> It's weird, in the community there's folks who are saying, the devil made me do it.
When he shook his hands and then he sold his soul, and then he blacked out cuz the devil
had control of him, and he's like-
>> Yeah, of course.
Did I say I'm undying, did I get on my knee?
>> I was speaking in tongues, weren't we all speaking in tongues?
I didn't understand a word the President was saying.
>> Super last thing, if he switched back tomorrow to Democrat, the Democratic Party would take
him.
>> Sure.
>> Isn't that sad?
No, no, no, you vote with the Republicans, you support Donald Trump, you're not a Democrat.
The Democratic Party is supposed to be the Progressive Party, not the corporate party.
So, bye, Felicia.
But they take him like next day and they brag about, that's right, yeah