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Senator Toomey told KDKA that the Jan. 6 vote to convict Trump of his role “wasn’t in jeopardy.”
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“There is absolutely no doubt that Mr Trump intended to interfere with the outcome of the election,” he said.
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After 12 years in the Senate, Toomey will step down and be replaced by John Fetterman.
Pat Toomey, a retired Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that his vote to convict former President Donald Trump of “inciting riots” for his role on Jan. 6, 2021 would ” It’s not a close call,” he said. The commander-in-chief believed he “intended to interfere with the outcome of the election.”
While speaking with political editor John Delano at KDKA, a Pittsburgh-area CBS affiliate, Toomey It pointed out He said he felt Trump’s narrow loss to Pennsylvania’s current president, Joe Biden, in the 2020 election played a key role in his approach to overturning the results.
“On Jan. 6, the reason he didn’t want to step in and stop the mob was because he wanted to slow the process of proving the election. At the time, he was pretty close to convincing the Pennsylvania legislature. Because I was thinking, a few other states need to pass bills to create new electoral lists to vote for him,” Toomey said.
After serving in the House from 1999 to 2005, the conservative who won the Senate elections in 2010 and 2016 was one of seven Republicans. voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial in February 2021. Not guiltyA 57 to 43 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority necessary for a conviction. )
“For me, it wasn’t a close call,” Toomey said of the vote. “There is no doubt that President Trump had the intention of sabotaging the election results.”
When asked if Toomey had any regrets about voting, lawmakers were adamant.
“That’s outrageous… It’s the most egregious violation of the Constitution that I can think of. To deliberately interfere with the outcome of an election so that you can stay in power. And I I think that’s exactly what happened there,” he said.
“I thought there was nothing I could do,” he continued. “If it’s not an impeachable crime, I would have a hard time thinking of what could be impeachable.”
But when asked whether Trump should face criminal charges for his role, Toomey said the situation was more murky in his eyes.
“I don’t know enough about the facts and circumstances,” he said. “I’ve seen the special counsel go on a rampage before, so I’m not enthusiastic about this,” he added, referring to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision Appoint a special counsel to handle all criminal investigations involving the former president.
Toomey, who chose not to run for re-election this fall, Successful January, by Democratic Senator John Fetterman.
Read the original article at business insider