Columnist sent Van Drew death threats, report says

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) told WPG Talk Radio host Harry Hurley he received death threats from an Ocean City Sentinel columnist Monday.

James McCall reportedly left the former Democrat a voicemail message during which he appeared to wish for the congressman’s death.

“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,” McCall said, according to a partial transcript released by Hurley. “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.”

In column published last week, McCall said he believed pro-Van Drew robocalls justified his voicemail message.

“Van Drew’s assaults on the sanctity of our home presented me with an opportunity I could not have gained for myself,” he wrote. “If he has the right to call us and mail us repeatedly with his unsolicited and unwanted sales pitches, which disgust us, then we have an equal right to call his family, invade his privacy and express our opinions of him, them and the un-American provisional wing of the GOP.”

Van Drew attacked McCall over portions of that column and another from January in which he said politicians who continued to support President Donald Trump after his election loss were guilty of treason.

“Like all Trump loyalists, Van Drew and DeVlieger are guilty of subverting the peaceful and equitable functioning of our government. This is not just a moral failing. This is treason. And the penalty for treason is execution,” he wrote. “That applies to the great and the small, to presidents, congressmen and smalltown councilmen. It’s the trickle down theory of responsibility.”

He followed that by calling on Van Drew to resign. The congressman, who voted against certifying the results of November’s election, has called such calls “silly.”

The former state senator called on the Ocean City Sentinel and the New Jersey Press Association, a non-profit that issues press credentials recognized by the New Jersey State Police, to condemn McCall, refusing to rule out unspecified legal action.

“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,” he said.

Disclosure: The New Jersey Globe is a member organization of the New Jersey Press Association.