When we last checked in on Sen. Pat Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican was uncomfortably perched on the Donald Trump fence—with him or against him? It’s 12 days and one debate later, and Toomey's still teetering up there to the point of looking pretty damned ridiculous. Here he is in Monday's debate:
[6abc Action News anchor Jim Gardner] turned his attention to Senator Toomey and his stance on Donald Trump.
"I know you have been waiting for this debate. In fact, I know you have been waiting for this moment to say whether or not you would be voting for the nominee of your party. So it is yea or nay?" Jim asked.
Toomey responded, "Jim, unlike Katie McGinty, I am not a hyper-partisan, reflexive ideologue who thinks he has to give blind obedience to his party's nominee. Katie McGinty does that. I don't. There's a lot of things that concern me a great deal about Donald Trump and I've been very public about it. I have criticized him repeatedly, publicly, because I think he's said some terrible things, I think he's taken some very badly flawed position. I acknowledge that the nominee of party is flawed. Katie McGinty is just blindly obedient to Hillary Clinton." […]
Continuing on the topic, Jim told Senator Toomey, "I'm not going to badger you to say something you're not going to say," but asked if his constituents deserve to know if he will support the nominee of his party.
"I don't think my constituents care that much how one person is going to vote. They are going to make their own decision all across the commonwealth about whom they are going to support and whom they're not going to support. I think they care much more about whether I have policies that are going to help grow this economy, whether I have policies that are going to help keep us safe, and that's the contrast on which they'll make their decision," Toomey said.
Your constituents might disagree there, Pat. They might actually care whether you're willing to take a stand on something. Anything—like whether you'd have enough backbone to actually stand up to a president you disagreed with, when you can't even decide which way the wind is blowing when it comes to voting for one.
Can you chip in $3 to Katie McGinty to send Pat Toomey packing?
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