OCEAN CITY, N.J. – Jeff Van Drew went public on Monday about a hair-raising voicemail reportedly received from a Cape May County newspaper columnist, a story first shared by Van Drew with Jersey Shore talk show host Harry Hurley.
“For far too long calls for violence have gone unchallenged, but today, right here in Cape May County we are drawing a line in the sand. You can come after me with loud words and threats, but if anyone, let alone a member of the Press, thinks they can threaten my wife and my family they’ve got another thing coming,” said Van Drew standing alongside Cape May County Sheriff Bob Nolan at a presser later in the day.
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Van Drew pointed to the February 28, 2021 voicemail (click here) in which the speaker identifies himself as John McCall, an established opinion writer for the Ocean City Sentinel.
“I would swear to your demise as a politician and I believe that you personally are a degenerate. As a member of the New Jersey Press Association, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are deposed if not dead,” said McCall. “Anything I can do to basically get you out of office, I will do. You are a traitor Jeff Van Drew and you deserve the fate of all traitors.”
No stranger to bombastic attacks after switching parties in December 2019 and becoming a lead ally of Donald Trump, Van Drew says these remarks clearly crossed a line.
“I am calling on the New Jersey Press Association and the Ocean City Sentinel to forcefully denounce and condemn the threats McCall made against me and my family, to immediately retract his hate-filled editorials, and issue a public apology to my family – until then any and all legal options remain on the table,” Van Drew added.
“As Sheriff it is my sworn duty to ensure the safety of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits Cape May County,” added Sheriff Nolan. “Congressman Van Drew didn’t offer himself or his family up for public service to be a target of threats or violence by anyone, let alone a newspaper columnist. The Cape May County Sheriff’s Office takes all threats seriously and political violence of any kind will not be tolerated.”
Threatening federal officials is a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison.
McCall appeared to admit to the message in a March 10th opinion piece published in his newspaper.
“Two Ocean City police officers showed up at our door last week, dispatched by Congressman Jeff Van Drew, purportedly fearing for his life. Mini-Trump’s pretense of feeling threatened so that he could further harass my family was a calculated reaction to a phone message I left on his answering machine,” wrote McCall. “My act was instigated by his own countless intrusions into our home by email and phone touting the anti-American agenda of his fellow Republican extremists and the disgraced, deposed traitor Donald Trump… [n]ow he claims to be scared shitless when the incendiary language of his mentor is turned against him… [t]his is why police don’t like him. These we seemed to agree, are mini-Trump’s political methods, not mine, far more threatening to the welfare of American citizens then a phone call to some pissant politician… [i]f I was a cop, I’d tell Van Drew to go hang.”
McCall also wrote disturbingly graphic things about the Republican Congressman’s wife…
“Van Drew’s mentor has said it’s cool to greet women by grabbing them between the legs,” McCall wrote. “Should we test the acceptability of this remark and get the direct response of a prominent GOP female by greeting Van Drew’s wife with the Republican high-five, lifting her over the hood of her car and objectively recording her physical reaction to the tickle when she lands?”
“Now mini-Trump whimpers when loyal Americans shoot back, disclose his lies, and hold him accountable for his hate-mongering treason. And as a traitor, he has forfeit his right to protection under the law. Know this V.D.: It doesn’t stop here… God save you.”
This isn’t McCall’s first experience with over-the-top language aimed at Jeff Van Drew. In a January 13, 2021 piece titled Hold Trump Loyalist Officials Accountable, McCall accused Van Drew of “treason” and noted “the penalty for treason is execution.” And it continued on from there…
“Van Drew recently employed a Trumplike dismissive by saying serious, populous calls for him to resign were “silly.” Should conscientious critics take a cue from the armed Republican rioters, storm his house, smash everything, violate his family, and walk away laughing? Would that be silly?”
“Joe Biden said during the presidential campaign that we are in a battle for the soul of the nation. The battle continues. As democratic defenders of the Republic, facing enemies with no respect for our electoral process or the truth, we are forced to ponder Thomas Jefferson’s grim directive that, for the good of our nation, the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and traitors.”
