Toomey censured by several Pennsylvania county GOP committees over impeachment vote

Sen. Patrick Toomey (Pa.) has drawn rebukes from Republican leaders in multiple counties across Pennsylvania following his vote to convict former President Trump during his second Senate impeachment trial over the weekend.

According to CBS Pittsburgh, Republican leaders in Clarion, Lawrence, Washington, York and Centre County have voted to censure the fellow Pennsylvania Republican as a result of Toomey’s vote.

Toomey was one of seven Republican senators who voted on Saturday to convict Trump on charges that he incited the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. 

The upper chamber ended up acquitting Trump in a 57-43 vote. At least 67 senators, or two-thirds of the chamber, would have needed to vote to convict the former president in order for him to have been found guilty of the charge. 

In their censure document targeting Toomey over the vote, the Clarion County Republican committee called the Senate’s move to proceed “with articles of impeachment against a President who is already out of office is constitutionally infirm,” according to the local CBS station.

The committee also described the move as “a purely self-serving vindictive and punitive action by those with establishment political objectives.”

In a statement explaining his decision to vote to convict Trump over the weekend, Toomey accused Trump of betraying his oath of office and the Constitution.

“President Donald Trump’s defense team made several accurate observations at the impeachment trial. Many elected Democrats did want to impeach President Trump from the moment he won the 2016 election. The mainstream media was unrelentingly biased and hostile to the president,” he claimed in the statement.

“Both often overlooked violent riots when perpetrated in favor of causes they found sympathetic last summer,” he continued.

However, Toomey added that neither of his claims “make President Trump’s conduct in response to losing the 2020 election acceptable.”

“He began with dishonest, systematic attempts to convince supporters that he had won. His lawful, but unsuccessful, legal challenges failed due to lack of evidence. Then, he applied intense pressure on state and local officials to reverse the election outcomes in their states,” he said. 

“When these efforts failed, President Trump summoned thousands to Washington, D.C. and inflamed their passions by repeating disproven allegations about widespread fraud,” he continued. “He urged the mob to march on the Capitol for the explicit purpose of preventing Congress and the Vice President from formally certifying the results of the presidential election. All of this to hold on to power despite having legitimately lost.” 

“His betrayal of the Constitution and his oath of office required conviction,” he concluded.