Republican former Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and again four years later, won’t be doing so a third time, he revealed Tuesday.
On CNBC’s Squawk Box, Toomey explained that Trump’s refusal to concede his election loss in 2020 and his subsequent efforts to remain in power were a deciding factor.
“When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point,” said Toomey, who voted in favor of convicting Trump of incitement of insurrection during the former president’s impeachment trial in 2021.
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But, Toomey added, he wouldn’t be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, either.
“I acknowledge that the outcome is a binary situation, but my choice is not,” Toomey said, after co-host Joe Kernen argued that every non-Trump vote is essentially a vote for Harris. “It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice for president.”
Toomey advocated for GOP control of the Senate, saying it would be “absolutely essential” to check the power of a Harris administration. A Democratic trifecta, he warned, would mean that Democrats “will repeal the filibuster, and they will be dragged by their left wing, which clearly is in charge now—and I think Kamala Harris proved that with her vice presidential selection.”
Toomey’s rejection of Trump’s candidacy follows that of other notable Republicans like former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan—both of whom spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month in favor of Harris. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, in an interview last November, has also made clear that he wouldn’t be supporting Trump, and has left the door open to voting for a Democrat.
