Rep. Van Drew to Newsmax: People Crave Safety

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., on Monday defended the House Judiciary Committee’s “field hearing” in New York City, citing a “basic fundamental need” for people to feel safe in their communities.

Appearing on Newsmax’s “John Bachman Now,” Van Drew, a hearing panel member, lamented that people are living in “a bizarre world where good people are punished and bad people are rewarded.”

“It is a basic, fundamental need — you want to be safe, you want your children to be safe, your mom, your dad, your grandparents, your families,” he said. “And the worst feeling of all is to actually exit your front door and go on to the street and feel that you’re going to be attacked, hurt or harmed in some way.”

Van Drew said what’s “particularly terrible about it is we have a prosecutor in Manhattan who literally does not really prosecute the law,” referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“If you do something violent, many times [prosecution] doesn’t put you in jail … gives you a real sweetheart deal, and this just creates more violence more, unrest, and certainly hurts the city and hurts the country,” Van Drew said. “It’s got to stop.”

Van Drew said the field hearing is an attempt to make sure “the right thing will happen.”

“Hopefully, we can help. We want to help. … I felt so bad for the individuals that just were there, and in some cases, the other side wasn’t even listening to them,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure to get this information out so that people understand what’s really going on. … And I think we did that … to just see how it affects and harms people’s lives. And then, I think, most importantly, to see if there’s some way that the House Judiciary Committee can actually help with these issues, and I believe there may be ways.”

Van Drew said that although it’s important to determine if there was alleged collusion between federal agents and Bragg in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, “I want to help the people who are suffering here.”

“We’re going to get to the bottom of that [Trump indictment]. Hopefully we will get to the bottom of everything that’s going on,” Van Drew said. “There’s always a collusion charge somewhere these days. I’m of a mind, of course, some of these issues are important, but I want to help the people who are suffering here. The people that pay our salaries.”