GOP County Chair Blasts Pat Toomey Vote: 'We Did Not Send Him There to Do the Right Thing'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The chair of the Republican Party in Washington County, Pennsylvania has strongly criticized Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) for voting to convict former President Donald Trump.
David Ball told local CBS affiliate KDKA on Monday that state Republicans had sent Toomey to Washington to represent them and argued that he should have toed the party line.
"We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever he said he was doing," Ball said. "We sent him there to represent us."
Toomey was one of just six Republicans to vote with Democrats to convict Trump last week.
The final vote was 56 in favor of conviction and 44 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority required.
"This is a matter of magnitude beyond a simple up or down vote on some trade policy or something," said Westmoreland County GOP chair Bill Bretz during Monday's KDKA segment. He was appearing with Ball to discuss the matter.
Toomey, who will retire from the Senate in 2022, explained his decision in a statement. He said he had done what he believed was right. Ball's comment on "the right thing" seems to suggest he had read Toomey's statement.
"As a result of President Trump's actions, for the first time in American history, the transfer of presidential power was not peaceful," Toomey wrote, referring to the deadly riot at the Capitol on January 6 that left five people dead.
"I did what I thought was right and I would certainly like to think that regardless of my political circumstances or whether I was running for office again or not I would do the same thing," he said.
"It was really the accumulation of the weight of all the evidence I think overwhelmingly argued in favor of conviction," Toomey said.
However, the senator also had some praise for Trump even as he voted to convict him and suggested that Republicans need to be able to distinguish between the former president's successes and his actions following the November election.
"The fact that the president did stand up to and against some bad policies and some bad trends—those things can be true and it can also be true that his behavior after the election became completely unacceptable," he said.
Local Republican Parties in Washington and Westmoreland counties plan to formally censure Toomey. Many other GOP groups across the country have passed motions of censure against elected Republicans who voted to impeach or convict Trump, with more expected.
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I guess the chair of the Republican Party in Washington County Pennsylvania does not mind looking like a complete idiot in the national media.
This article, more than others, explains the mindset of the Republican party
Party above country.
Party above people.
Party above laws.
Yeah this is SAD !
'We Did Not Send Him There To Do The Right Thing'
True,IF he was elected to rubber stamp trump's means and BS ways of accomplishment he blew it.
Not bowing down to the Donald can be quite dangerious to a republicans career right.
Yeah this is SAD !
I guess( only my opinion ) we shall see what happens when the actual electorate vote come re election time .
and that is out of anyones hands to change.
As has been the historical case.... The far wings win in the primaries, and struggle to move to the center in order to appeal to the more centered voters. QAnon types are going to have a very difficult time in anything but solidly red districts.
Now fly , i dont know or even really care about all you posted . ( no offense meant).
what i do see is the misunderstanding of some people as to what a senators job is and whom they actually represent .
under the conditions to be a senator today , some tend to think that because they are elected by the people , that they serve the people , thing is though the 17th changed how senators are elected , it did not change the job of senators one iota , senators serve the interests of the state, not the people.
Problem i see with that is , the people of the state whom elect them , will with their majority within the vote dictate what they think a senator should do and how they vote. If a senator votes contrary to the majority opinion of the voters , they risk not being re elected , simple as that. and that is how i am viewing it , nothing complicated about it.
The loudest voices are not always the majority.
and i never said that now did i?
The majority is determined on election day after the polls close and the votes are counted , after that its up to the individual to decide if they will accept the outcome , they also get to decide individually if they will cooperate and or comply.
Even with voting I would not call that a majority.
You lost me though. An individual not accepting an outcome is just childish. Cooperate and comply? With what, the election results? Once one is elected, there is not much one can do about it.
My point was, it seems that some that get elected only listen to the loudest voices which are not necessarily any majority.
Just like people use fox news as context for republicans, I would hardly say hannity getting a three mil rating is a majority.
well cant and wont deny that point , i call that the sqweaky wheel syndrome.
of course that would lead to the question , which sqweaky wheel should they be listening to? those in and from the state that elected them or those from outside the state that didnt?
True. And yes, it happens on both sides of the isle.
There is a new poll today that shows that more of half of Republicans would vote again for Trump in 2024. Obviously the Republican who gets more than half of Republicans supporting him (or her) will win their nomination.
Just because someone wins a national nomination does not translate to winning an election, that is a rather longer process as we all found out recently ,or a lot of people should have.
The same could be said of most Republican politicians.
I loved Moscow Mitch's address after the vote last Saturday. To paraphrase..... "Trump's guilty of everything the house impeachment officers presented, but we couldn't vote for it and will leave it for others to clean up the mess in aisle 46.". Imagine if it had been a secret vote.... And those on the right were all good and ready to impeach over conventual sex just a few decades ago. So much for honor & conscience on the right.....
LOL, stupid is as stupid says.
So according to him it is party loyalty over anything else.
This is what donald has wrought us. Don't you dare do what you think is right, don't do what you think is needed, don't vote your conscience, it is only loyalty to party we look for...
That's what the Democrats do, that's why they vote in lockstep with each other, often to their detriment.
Yet I don't see Democrats getting censured for not voting a certain way...
May I refer you back to Greg's 6.1...
"they vote in lockstep with each other"
Why would someone be censored when they vote in lockstep with the rest of the loon left?,
Because they are not all in lock step. Just look at them right now. There are several that do not want the 15 an hour wage that is tied in with the stimulus bill.
But will they actually vote against it.
We shall see.
Problem is...if Nancy knows she has traitors within her fold, she will not bring it to a vote.
In a season of dumb stuff, this is a contender for the dumbest. These people cast what they thought was the right vote. There’s nothing wrong with that. Disagree with them, if you like, but getting offended as if they betrayed a promise or broke a rule is idiotic.
And especially so in a time when Republicans are going around complaining about infringements on free speech and thought. Now, they want to censure people for expressing their heartfelt beliefs. Hypocrites.
And that is what kill me about representative governments, and the whole point of them. The entire purpose is to send someone smarter than you and those around you, to represent you. Part of being smarter means they don't go along with every dipshit idea or belief you have. These days in the US it seems that the reps are expected to reflect how stupid the poeple who votes for them are, and thus not vote for logical policy but vote based upon conspiracy theories.