WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US Sen. Pat Toomey said on Sunday that President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, should resign after his supporters stormed the US Chapter in a deadly disaster last week.
Toomey, who was a Trump supporter until recently, became the second Republican in the Senate to demand that the president resign.
“I think the best way for our country is for the president to resign and leave as soon as possible,” he said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
Toomey said he did not think it was time for an indictment, just 10 days before Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as Trump’s successor. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes resignation is “the best way to bring this person into the rearview mirror.”
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said Friday that Trump should resign immediately and suggested he consider leaving the party if Republicans cannot secede from him.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a frequent critic of Trump, told CBS News that he “will definitely consider” the indictment because the president “disregarded his oath of office.”
Toomey, a Conservative who plans to retire at the end of his term in 2022, said he believed Trump had fallen to a level of “madness” after the election that was inconceivable.
“I don’t think there is any doubt … that the president’s behavior after the election was completely different than before. He went down to a level of madness and engaged in an absolutely unthinkable and unforgivable activity, “Toomey told CNN.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Linda So; Edited by Daniel Wallis and Bill Berkrot