Republican Sen. Pat Toomey stated his belief that President Trump committed impeachable offenses related to the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
Toomey is not the first Senate Republican to come out against the president after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol and forced a lockdown because Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. The pandemonium led to five deaths (including a law enforcement officer), countless injuries, a lockdown of the Capitol, and dozens of arrests, but it only temporarily halted Congress before it certified the Electoral College votes for Biden.
Toomey, a senator from Pennsylvania, said he wasn’t certain he would vote to remove him from office.
“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses,” he told the Journal Editorial Report on Saturday, before adding, “but I don’t know what is going to land on the Senate floor, if anything.”
The Pennsylvania legislator also said he was “concerned” about whether “the House would completely politicize” the president’s impeachment.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has been one of the most vocal GOP critics of the president throughout his administration, said in a recent interview that she “want[s] him out” because “he has caused enough damage.”
“I will attribute it to the president, who said, even after his vice president told him that morning, ‘I do not have the constitutional authority to do what you have asked me to do. I cannot do it. I have to protect and uphold the Constitution.’ Even after the vice president told President Trump that, he still told his supporters to fight,” she said.
There are 180 House Democrats who support impeaching Trump for “willfully inciting violence,” but the timeline for an impeachment and trial would not be possible before the end of Trump’s presidency. That might not stop them, as some believe that the Senate has the ability to prevent Trump from serving office ever again, even if his presidency has ended.
