Retiring GOP senator urges party not to nominate Trump in 2024

Retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) urged his party to not nominate former President Trump in the 2024 presidential race.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Toomey was asked whether he would be disappointed if Trump became the GOP nominee in 2024.

“Yeah, after what happened post-2020 election. I think the president’s behavior was completely unacceptable,” Toomey said. “So I don’t think he should be the nominee to lead the party in 2024.”

“There’s no one obvious candidate, but there are many, many people who could do a fantastic job,” he added.

Toomey has pushed back against Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The Pennsylvania Republican was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict the former president on impeachment charges of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was later censured by several county Republican parties in his home state for the vote.

Trump, who consistently polls as the most popular Republican among GOP voters, has publicly flirted with running again in 2024. 

Regarding the future of the GOP, Toomey said the party should not be “about any one individual.”

“I think that the future of our party is to be a party of ideas, and not to be a party about any one individual. And I think we will learn a lot from the next set of primaries,” he said.

Toomey has said he will not seek reelection in 2022. Among the candidates to succeed him, Trump has endorsed Republican Sean Parnell, who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Connor Lamb (D-Pa.) last year.