Pushing through a major initiative like President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID package without it having bipartisan support is "never good government," and goes against his calls for unity, Rep. Jeff Van Drew said Thursday.
"The devil is in the details with these things," the New Jersey Republican said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria." "You have really got to make sure that we're doing this the right way, that we're not spending too much, that we're not spending too little. The stimulus has to be the right amount to make sure that we focus it correctly."
He added that a single-party push for the bill will "backfire" because "people want their congresspeople to work and to be involved."
Van Drew added that at this point, he doesn't really see much unity, but he'll still reach out to committees he's involved in to try to create it. However, he said there are "substantive issues" that he can't be unified with, including being soft on China, allowing open borders, or not following the rule of law in some elections.
"Maybe we can become unified if folks on the other side would be willing to meet us in the middle but when we are changing so much, I think the United States of America is facing the largest challenge we have ever had since the Civil War," said Van Drew. "I worry about the republic."
He added that he does not believe Biden is showing much acceptance that there are "folks with different ideas, conservative folks, Republicans" that can find ways of working together.
"That would be a wonderful thing to see," said Van Drew. "I wish people would look at it and understand what is happening to their country."
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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