GOP lawmaker: Democratic Party ‘used to be more moderate’

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R) said Sunday the Democratic Party of which he used to be a member “used to be more moderate” but its views have trended toward the extreme in recent years.

Van Drew, who left the Democratic Party for the GOP in 2019 over the House vote to impeach President Trump, said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that his former party was “going towards a socialist bent,” despite the defeat of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

“The Democratic Party used to be more moderate. It is not now. It has changed. It is a new party,” he told host Maria Bartiromo.

“And it is not just political rhetoric, Maria, to say that much of the party is really going towards a socialist bent. They really are,” the New Jersey congressman added.

During the interview Van Drew also slammed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for her repeated reference to the coronavirus as the “Trump virus,” a response to the president’s own nicknames for the virus including the “China virus” and the “kung flu,” for which the president has faced accusations of racism.

“[F]or her to say that is absolutely outrageous, when we know it was China that didn’t give us the information, China that wouldn’t let the CDC come in. It was China, God knows, that influenced the [World Health Organization] to give the wrong information out,” said Van Drew.

The newly-minted member of the GOP won his party’s primary last month and is now headed for a showdown in November with Democratic candidate Amy Kennedy, a former teacher, in November. His district is rated as “lean Republican” by the Cook Political Report.