Obama blasts GOP senator for using him in campaign ad

President Obama blasted Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Saturday for using him in a campaign ad.

Toomey’s ad included a clip of Obama commending Toomey for his “courage” in putting forth a bipartisan bill establishing background checks for firearms purchases.

{mosads}“Pat Toomey may have done the right thing on one vote, but courage is telling Pennsylvania voters where you stand on the tough issues, not just the easy ones like background checks,” Obama said in a statement.

Toomey is locked in a tight reelection race against Democrat Katie McGinty, whom Obama endorsed.

Throughout the race, Toomey has tried to distance himself from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. The Pennsylvania Republican has refused to say whether he’ll vote for Trump.

“Pat Toomey won’t tell Pennsylvania voters where he stands on Donald Trump, trying instead to have it both ways by telling different people what he thinks they want to hear,” Obama said Saturday. “That’s not courage.” 

“Voting to shut down the government and against bills to close the terrorist gun loophole isn’t courage. And playing politics with the Supreme Court isn’t courage,” he added.

In a statement to The Hill, Toomey campaign spokesman Ted Kwong responded to the president by pointing to the senator’s bipartisan record.

“Pat Toomey is proud of his ongoing bipartisan work to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill and we will continue to highlight that record,” Kwong said.

“It’s clear this election is a choice between Pat’s record as an independent voice and Katie McGinty’s history of rubber-stamp partisanship and ethics problems,” he added.