OC Man Threatened Van Drew and Family, Congressman Says

COURT HOUSE – One day after U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) accused a “member of the media” of leaving death threats on his home phone, the tables turned, and it was the accused claiming he had to call the police to tell them he was receiving threats from one of Van Drew’s supporters.
On the Cape May County Courthouse’s front steps March 15, Van Drew held a press conference to condemn John McCall, an unpaid guest columnist, and the Ocean City Sentinel, a weekly newspaper that published McCall’s guest columns. 
“This is not about me being sensitive or fearful. I don’t care. I am in a business where you are going to have people really criticize you,” Van Drew said, in an interview with the Herald. “This was beyond that. I will not tolerate and never will tolerate anyone vividly describing anyone sexually assaulting my wife.”
Guest columns published in the Ocean City Sentinel under McCall’s byline included scathing criticism of Van Drew and former President Donald Trump. 
McCall’s commentary, in a March 10 guest column, in the newspaper, evokes Trump’s infamous, lewd conversation with Billy Bush aboard the “Access Hollywood” bus, in 2005. Trump’s remarks about interacting with women were widely condemned when the hot mic tape was released during the 2016 presidential election. 
McCall, in his guest column, suggests testing the acceptability of Trump’s comments by performing the action Trump describes in the tape on Van Drew’s wife, while “lifting her over the hood of her car” and “recording her physical reaction.”
David Nahan, publisher and editor, Ocean City Sentinel, sought to clarify the writer’s stance on sexual assault.
“McCall did not advocate any type of violence against women. He was trying to make the opposite point about treatment of women in his guest column. Unfortunately, the way he wrote that sentence, he failed. I failed him by not editing the guest column,” Nahan wrote, in an email. 
“It is clear as day,” Van Drew told the Herald, in response to Nahan’s comments. “Don’t make excuses. It was a very bad and evil thing to do.” 
Van Drew switched from Democrat to Republican in December 2019 and pledged his “undying support” to Trump. 
In another guest column, published Jan. 13, McCall writes that for that, Van Drew is guilty of “treason. And the penalty for treason is execution.” Later in the guest column, he writes, in these times, “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.” 
In one article, McCall asks if Van Drew’s “conscientious critics (should) take a cue from the armed Republican rioters, storm his house, smash everything, violate his family, and walk away laughing?”
The guest columns were removed from the Sentinel’s website.
Nahan apologized to Van Drew in a column (http://bit.ly/3s0TBXc), and declined an interview request from the Herald, electing to respond to emailed questions instead. In the public apology, he said, he didn’t feel as though the guest columns contained threats.
Van Drew said he thought Nahan’s public apology wasn’t strong enough. 
“All of the newspaper’s contents are ultimately my responsibility… I should have cut out the most vitriolic and inappropriate language, or declined to print them. That is my fault for not doing so,” Nahan later said, in an email to the Herald. 
“These were op-eds printed in the paper,” Van Drew said. “To allow that filth and violence in a newspaper is unconscionable. I don’t really have the words, but it is the editor-publisher who is most responsible in all this.”
Nahanhad not spoken to Van Drew personally, but planned to call him. 
“He asked for a public apology, so I did that first,” Nahan stated. 
Van Drew released a voicemail to the media that McCall left on Van Drew’s home phone, in February. In it, McCall is heard saying, “I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are deposed, if not dead.” 
“You are a traitor, Jeff Van Drew, and you deserve the fate of all traitors,” McCall said, before ending the call. 
McCall identifies himself as a member of the New Jersey Press Association (NJPA) in the voicemail message.
In a statement, NJPA President Paul D’Ambrosio wrote, McCall “is not and has never been a member of NJPA.” 
Most of the nonprofit organization’s members are various newspapers, including the Herald. The Ocean City Sentinel is also a member, but D’Ambrosio declined to offer further comment on the NJPA’s stance on that paper’s editorial discretion. 
Nahan told the Herald he would’ve fired or suspended McCall because of the voicemail, if he were on staff, and will not publish any future guest columns or letters from McCall unless it were an apology to Van Drew. 
Asked by the Herald if he would apologize to Van Drew, McCall replied, “Never.”
Van Drew reported the voicemail from McCall to the U.S. Capitol Police, who confirmed they are the lead agency investigating the matter.
“Capitol Police thoroughly investigates all potential threats to members of Congress, as is being done in this case,” the U.S. Capitol Police’s public information office told the Herald. 
McCall, reached by phone, said he was unaware he was being investigated, but in one of his guest columns, wrote about a visit from the Ocean City police to ask him about the voicemail he left the congressman.
Ocean City police did not comment on the matter.  
McCall said he has not been contacted by Capitol Police or any other law enforcement agency since then. He said he does not fear criminal charges against him and never made a death threat. 
McCall said when he and his wife walked into their Ocean City home March 16, they received repeated, threatening phone calls.
“I get five phone calls in a row from a guy,” McCall said. “It appears to be some deranged Van Drew supporter. We ended up calling the police and getting them in here. He wouldn’t cooperate with the police at all. We had him on speakerphone.” 
Ocean City police declined to comment through a city spokesman, saying it would be “premature.” Van Drew said he does not support the callers’ actions if the reports are legitimate. 
Van Drew said he is still contemplating if he will take legal action. He said he originally declined to press charges on McCall and that if he filed a civil suit, it would likely be against the newspaper. 
“I truthfully had to read it over and over. I thought I was in bizzarro world. I couldn’t imagine that anybody ever would print anything like that. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, and I’ve been in politics a long time,” Van Drew said. 
When asked whether he was concerned Van Drew may take legal action, Nahan didn’t answer, but let it be known that was not the motivation behind his public apology.
“I didn’t apologize because of potential legal action. I apologized because it was the right thing to do,” said Nahan.
Van Drew said he is not fearful of any imminent threat to his safety, and his wife and family are strong. He said his wife decided not to read the articles. 
“I don’t think there is (an imminent threat); however, it is something that has to be monitored. This can be a progressive thing with an individual,” Van Drew said. “I thought it was a bad sign in a way that he refused to apologize. I think that’s unfortunate.”
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com.