taking care of a family emergency. there s a lot going on on the impeachment front up here. just within the last 30 minutes we ve had congressman jeff van drew, the democrat soon to be republican member from new jersey who finally spoke to reporters for the first time since news of his imminent party switching broke out. he did not confirm the switch, but told me the only other issue that came to mind that he identifies with republicans on is american exceptionalism. he says democrats don t believe in it. that s not the kind of thing you say if you plan on remaining a democrat so i think we can officially scratch him off the list. oh, by the way, at the same time in the other chamber on the senate side, mitch mcconnell came right out and said it. he said he does not see his role as being an impartial juror in this process, he called it purely political and that s the way it s going to go. i have not seen the battle lines so dug in here from the president s letter on down to the majorit
let me move on. there used to be a reward for party switching from the party that you switched to. right? but the story of the last decade has not been favorable. charlie chris, the governor of florida, switched parties when he was running for senate in order to beat marco rubio. lost. finally, he got a congressional seat finally. but that didn t work. didn t work for the senator from pennsylvania who switched parties because he was going to lose. the party you go to doesn t like you because they don t trust you idealogically. the party you went to has a very vested interest in crushing you till you die. but isn t donald trump going to hail him as a hero? he s going to switch parties because isn t he going to get twitter love from the president? he may but that will not prevent a conservative republican from running in that district and beating him. i think the reason you re not getting rewarded is because it s plainly cynical and plainly an
is he the exception or the rule here? well, it s an exception. i mean, you very rarely see party switching and this is a very extreme example of democrats feeling uncomfortable. obviously, a lot of them are feeling the pressure here. but van drew was always a little bit of an interesting character. there were a lot of democrats even in his district very uncomfortable with him. he had a primary last year. and it looks like he is going to have a really difficult next year or so because democrats are going to is he saving his seat with this? he certainly thinks so because he wouldn t do this otherwise. but democrats, both nationally and locally, have made it extremely clear to him that that is not going to be the case if they have anything to say about it. he s clearly hoping he can become trump s best friend. but that s not really a trump-friendly district. at least six staffers have quit. but it is a very strange thing because it used to be there were real rewards to party s
entered and his big strategy was to wait until florida. it has not been successful in the past in these early states you have a lot of activists who care passionately for good reason. it doesn t mean it can t be done and certainly having mayor bloomberg s money if anyone could do it, that sort of money is going to help but it s really an interesting test for democracy. much obliged to our big three on the monday night of this holiday shortened new week. fr thank you for showing up and helping us out. coming up tonight, the members of the president s party who know better but would still rather pass along russian talking points if it means not crossing trump. and later, a party switching data terminal inventing news organization owning new york millionaire gets into the
care passionately for good reason. it doesn t mean it can t be done. and certainly having mayor bloomberg s money if, anyone can do it that, money is going to help. but it s really an interesting test kind of for democracy and this early nominating process and the importance or lack of importance potentially of the first four states. much ablithe to our boblige . thank you, gang, for showing up and helping us out. coming up, the members of the president s party who know better but would still rather pass along russian talking points if it means not crossing trump. and later, a party switching data terminal inventing news organization owning new york billionaire gets into the democratic race. what could go wrong? the 11th hour is just getting started with this back to work monday night with the arrival of the white house christmas tree. f the white house christmas tree managing type 2 diabetes?