A second Republican senator is calling for Trump’s resignation

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) called for President Donald Trump’s resignation during an appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press. “I think the best way for our country, Chuck, is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible,” Toomey told the show’s host, Chuck Todd.

Toomey became the latest Republican elected official to call for Trump’s resignation, following in the footsteps of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. All three are moderate Republicans.

On Friday, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski became the first GOP senator to call for Trump’s removal from office, saying that she’d reconsider her membership in the Republican Party, “if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump.” She later followed that statement by clarifying that she does not plan to join the incoming Democratic majority.

On Saturday, Toomey told Fox News that he believed that Trump had committed “impeachable offenses.” In that interview, Toomey said he believed that Trump’s behavior this week, which triggered a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on Wednesday, “does disqualify him from serving,” but he noted Trump has less than two weeks remaining in office.

“I don’t know whether logistically it’s actually really even possible or practical and I’m not sure it’s desirable to attempt to force him out, what, a day or two or three prior to the day on which he’s going to be finished anyway,” Toomey said. “So I’m not clear that’s the best path forward.”

Toomey made appearances Sunday on multiple political talk shows, reiterating his call for Trump’s departure on each. On CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, the Pennsylvania senator attempted to explain the erosion of his previous support for the president.

“The president’s behavior after the election was wildly different than his behavior before, he descended into a level of madness and engaged in a level of activity that was just absolutely unthinkable,” Toomey told Tapper.

As Vox’s Fabiola Cineas has explained, however, Trump has a long history of behavior similar to that he exhibited after the 2020 election.

It remains to be seen how many GOP lawmakers will ultimately call for Trump’s resignation — meanwhile, however, Democratic members of the House are preparing articles of impeachment against Trump following the Capitol insurrection Wednesday.

So far, over 220 Democratic representatives have publicly shown support for impeachment. That makes it likely for the House to vote to impeach the president, but the next step is a trial before the Senate. Considering the short time between now and Inauguration Day, January 20 — and that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to his colleagues saying such a trial wouldn’t take place until January 19 at the earliest — it’s unlikely that the Senate would conduct a trial before Trump leaves office.

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