Pa’s Toomey becomes second GOP senator to call on Trump to quit, report

(Updated at 1:57 p.m., on Sunday, 1/10/21)

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., has become the second United States senator to call on President Donald Trump to resign, charging that the president descended into “madness” as he incited supporters to attack the Capitol in a bloody seige that has claimed five lives.

“The president’s behavior after the election was wildly different than his behavior before he descended into a level of madness and engaged in activity that was just absolutely unthinkable and unforgivable,” Toomey told CNN’s State of the Union, the Guardian reported.

Toomey continued, telling CNN that “the behavior was outrageous. And there should be accountability. I think the president has disqualified himself from ever serving in office again.

“It’s the best path forward, the best way to get this person in the rearview mirror,” Toomey concluded.  “There’s no question there’s a lot of a very objectionable behavior over the way. I just think that what we witnessed this week is orders of magnitude more egregious than anything we’ve ever seen from Donald Trump before.”

Toomey told CNN that it’s unlikely that there’s time to impeach Trump before he leaves office on Jan. 20.

Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, Toomey said Trump committed “impeachable offenses” for inciting his supporters to storm the United States Capitol on Wednesday, a spasm of violence that disrupted the counting of electoral votes, and left five people dead, includng a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

As reported by the Associated Press, Toomey did not say whether he would vote in favor of removing Trump from office if the U.S. House sends over articles of impeachment and if the Senate puts Trump on trial. Toomey previously voted against impeaching Trump.

I call on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing the powers of the presidency from Donald Trump. This is the quickest way to protect our domestic and national security.

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) January 7, 2021

“I don’t know what they are going to send over and one of the things that I’m concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something,” the Lehigh Valley Republican told Fox News, according to the Associated Press.

Pa. Sen. Toomey: I’ll ‘vigorously defend our form of government’ when Congress meets to count electoral votes

“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses, but I don’t know what is going to land on the Senate floor, if anything,” Toomey said, according to the AP.

Toomey, who is not seeking re-election in 2022, and who plans to retire from politics, had opposed efforts by other Senate Republicans to object to the count certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ victory last November.