Republican senator: Trump will be ‘remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior’ if he lets COVID-19 relief expire

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Sunday urged President Trump to sign the coronavirus aid package that has passed Congress, warning the president’s legacy is at stake.

“You don’t get everything you want, even if you’re president of the United States,” Toomey said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think the COVID relief measures are really, really important.”

“In my state, as in many other states, we have governors who are closing down businesses again,” he added.

Toomey called it a “hopeful sign” that Trump has not yet vetoed the bill passed by Congress, even as he has demanded larger direct payments of $2,000 to Americans.

The Pennsylvania senator suggested that the president was thinking of his legacy with the demand but said that “he’ll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior if he allows this to expire.”

“I understand the president would like to send bigger checks to everybody. … I think what he ought to do is sign this bill and then make the case,” Toomey said. “I don’t agree with $2,000 to people who have had no lost income whatsoever, but the president’s free to make that case.”

Asked about Trump’s recent round of presidential pardons, Toomey said former national security adviser Michael Flynn was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct and that it was “perfectly legitimate to pardon him.”

However, he said that in “some of these other cases we have tax fraud, bank fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of justice,” in an apparent reference to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Toomey compared the pardons to former President Clinton’s pardon of financier and Democratic donor Marc Rich.

“It is legal, it is constitutional, but I think it’s a misuse of the power,” Toomey said.