GOP senator: It would be best for Trump ‘to resign and go away as soon as possible’

GOP Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on two Sunday shows that he agrees with calls for the president to leave office immediately rather than remaining in the White House until his term expires next week.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Toomey said that he agreed with his colleague Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who called for the president to resign immediately.

“I think the best way for our country … is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible,” Toomey said.

“It does not look as though there is the will or the consensus to exercise the 25th Amendment option, and I don’t think there’s time to do an impeachment. There’s 10 days left before the president leaves anyway. I think the best thing would be a resignation,” he continued.

Questioned on CNN about the president’s future, the swing-state GOP senator, who is retiring at the end of 2022, said that he didn’t believe after Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol that the president would ever find a sizable constituency of voters to propel him to office again.

“I think the president has disqualified himself from ever certainly serving in office again,” Toomey told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“I don’t think he’s electable in any way, and I don’t think that he’s going to be exercising anything like the kind of influence like he’s had over the Republican Party going forward,” he continued.

While he does not think impeachment is a viable strategy during Trump’s remaining days in office, Toomey added that he does believe Trump could face criminal charges after leaving office.

“I think there’s also the possibility of criminal liability here,” Toomey said. “There should be accountability here.”

His comments are some of the strongest among the Senate GOP caucus in response to Wednesday’s riot; many Republican lawmakers have expressed outrage over the incident while urging their Democratic colleagues against pursuing impeachment.