President Joe Biden's comments, while rolling out his gun control plans, show that he "doesn't understand the Constitution," and his words about the Second Amendment point to an "extremely dangerous" path, Rep. Jeff Van Drew said on Newsmax TV Friday.
"He doesn't understand the Constitution, which is hard to believe for somebody that has spent so much time in government," the New Jersey Republican told Newsmax TV's "John Bachman Now." "The Constitution is what guides us through governing our nation."
While describing his plans, Biden said that "no amendment is absolute" and denied that his gun control measures would violate the Second Amendment.
"No amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute," he said. "You can’t yell 'fire' in a crowded movie theater — recall freedom of speech. From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning that the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons."
Biden added that "nothing, nothing I am about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment" and said the "idea is just bizarre, to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution."
"I don't like those words because those words seemed to indicate the beginning of no longer following or listening or understanding or caring about the United States Constitution," said Van Drew. "That is extremely dangerous and leads us down a very bad road. He's wrong. It is absolute. It is clear. There is a Second Amendment right. It's not complicated there."
And with such legislation, "law-abiding Americans keep getting the blunt end," said Van Drew. "The problem is crime. If you really wanted to do something, work on the crime increases that are occurring in New York City or in Chicago or in many other cities, if you really want to do something. Then you would worry about mental health and really start having good public policy for mental health."
Meanwhile, the push to force through legislation without support from Republicans is the "worst example of the democracy in a republic, over the last few months, than I can ever remember," said Van Drew.
"It's shameful. It's hurtful to the American public," he said. "We are supposed to work together, and it's not that Republicans don't want to. I know I want to. But these things are done ... (they're saying) we're not going to listen to the Constitution or once again going to infringe on the rights of legal good people who own guns and we're not gonna do anything really about the real cause of the problem, which is crime, the real cause of the problem, which is mental health."
Van Drew also commented on the ongoing crisis at the border, including the news that it is costing the government $60 million a week to keep migrant teenagers and children housed. He called that an "astounding" figure, as is the "human cost" for the surge.
"It's going to cost to our country, all the disease that's being brought in, all the problems that we're gonna have with the drug cartel and more drugs be brought in, the shame of what's being done," he said. "The drug cartels literally buy these kids, bring them over, and uses them as drug mules. (They) sexually abuse them, physically abused them. That is not this is supposed to be our main way of dealing with immigration than what we were doing. We had agreements with the Northern Triangle. We had agreements with Mexico for places for them to stay. We were building borders. A sovereign nation must have borders."
He added that the United States has "never seen so many things going wrong so quickly, and so terribly. It really is sad. We have to save our nation."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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