Pat Toomey defends Trump on impeachment: ‘Where is the crime?'
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, speaking to the state’s Republican Party at Pennsylvania Society in Manhattan, hinted that the U.S. Senate will clear President Donald Trump when the U.S. House sends over articles of impeachment for trial.
NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, so uncomfortable in 2016 with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president that he waited until after voting to say he supported his party’s candidate, seems much more at ease these days.
Toomey, speaking Friday to Republicans at the annual Pennsylvania Society gathering of political insiders in Manhattan, fully backed Trump as articles of impeachment are brewing in the U.S. House.
“As you watch these proceedings in the House, there’s one question that keeps coming up in my mind,” Toomey told the state GOP’s Commonwealth Club Luncheon. “And that is, where is the crime?“
Toomey has previously called Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, “inappropriate” but not impeachable.
On Friday, he hinted that the Republican-controlled Senate would acquit Trump in a trial after the Democratic-controlled House impeaches him.
“I think they’re going to make their case by the end of the year and send it over to our chamber,” Toomey said. ”And we will deal with it. I don’t want to go too far on a limb, but you probably won’t be surprised by the disposition of this issue.”
Looking past impeachment, Toomey promised a dominant Republican Party in 2020, if the crowd — paying $1,250 for lunch or $2,500 for a “VIP reception with Second Lady Karen Pence — kept digging deep.
“I’m convinced that if you all continue your generous support for our party and our candidates," he said, "we’re going to reelect President Trump, we’re going to hold the United States Senate. and honestly I think we have a shot at taking back the House.”
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