VILLANOVA, Pa. — Sen. Pat Toomey announced Tuesday that he will continue to withhold his support from Donald Trump in the wake of a new video tape showing the GOP nominee making lewd statements on a hot microphone 11 years ago.
Toomey told reporters after a breakfast Tuesday morning that he remains “unpersuaded” to support Trump after the emergence of the video, adding that he still had “serious concerns” about the party’s nominee.
“As you may recall, unlike many of my colleagues, I made it clear back in May way back when Donald Trump emerged as the likely nominee that I had serious reservations and serious concerns. I still do,” Toomey told a gaggle of reporters. “I remain unpersuaded. I have been outspoken about the specific concerns that I had, and I’ll continue to speak out when I think it’s appropriate.”
“The way I look at it is we have two terrible choices, and I think many Pennsylvanians view it this way,” Toomey said. “This is not, ultimately, a referendum on anyone. It’s a choice. It’s a bad choice, and I still remain unpersuaded.”
When asked if he was ruling out supporting the GOP nominee, Toomey said that he was “not endorsing him” at the moment, but declined to rule out doing so in the future. He also touched on House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to not defend the GOP nominee moving forward despite not retracting his endorsement.
“Paul Ryan is in a very different situation than I am in,” Toomey said. “He had endorsed Donald Trump. I never did endorse Donald Trump. He has a responsibility to his colleagues that is different from my role. So he’ll have to decide what he wants.”
Prior to the video’s release on Friday, Toomey was one of only two GOP incumbents up for re-election to not support Trump for president, along with Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk. Since then, however, a group of those up for re-election in November have opposed Trump, including Arizona’s John McCain, New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Ohio’s Rob Portman.
The Pennsylvania Republican was hosting a “Women for Toomey” event with Sen. Susan Collins, where the two talked throughout about “independent” thinking that isn’t beholden to party lines. Specifically, the two mentioned their support for various gun control measures, including for banning the sale of guns to those on the no fly list.
