Jefferson Van Drew, the man at the center of it all, plays no pivotal role in Democrats’ impeachment drama—or any drama, really, for that matter. He does not sit on any one of the six committees that are investigating the president. Nor was he among the group of freshman Democrats with national security backgrounds who had dramatically announced their support for impeachment in an op-ed the night before.

Instead, Van Drew’s claim to fame is that he’s the guy standing athwart the impeachment train, yelling stop—even though the train has left the station.

“Let me emphasize again, impeachment is an extremely serious issue,” Van Drew explained to a different group of reporters last Friday, his cadence firm, friendly, and doused in a thick Jersey accent. “It is not something to be taken lightly. You’re disenfranchising voters, you’re removing an executive from office. That usually only happens in third-world countries.”