A former Republican senator from a crucial swing state says he will not be supporting former President Donald Trump in the November election.
Former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) told CNBC that even though he supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 he can’t bring himself to vote for the former president in 2024, citing his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“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,” Toomey told ‘Squawk box’ host Joe Kernen.
But Toomey said he is not supporting Democratic presidential Vice-President Kamala Harris either.
“I acknowledge that the outcome is a binary situation, but my choice is not,” Toomey said when Kernen insisted he’d be supporting Harris by not voting for Trump in such a critical state.
“It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice for president,” Toomey said.
He argued that it is essential for Republicans to win control of the Senate to rein in Kamala Harris if she wins the election. Toomey predicted that Harris would push “huge tax increases” and “some version of ‘Medicare for All’”.
If Democrats regain control of the Senate, Toomey said, “They 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,” referring to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Toomey represented Pennsylvania in the Senate from 2011 to 2023. He was one of the seven Republicans in the upper chamber who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial on the charge of inciting an insurrection against the United States after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
