Senator Pat Toomey Dishes On Who He Picked To Be The Next President
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pennsylvania U.S Senator Pat Toomey, who had no Republican primary opponent, is well aware that Democrats are now targeting his district in the November election.
Senator Toomey says his freshly minted opponent, Katie McGinty, is beholden to the party elite in Washington.
"The political powerbrokers of the Democratic party establishment in Washington pulled out all of the stops and spent millions of dollars - literally - to pull Katie McGinty over the goal line."
And what about the man who came within two-points of beating Toomey back in 2010, retired admiral and former two-term Democratic congressman Joe Sestak, who fell into disfavor with party leaders?
"Joe Sestak just got steamrolled by the big party bosses of Washington Democrats."
Toomey says by all accounts, McGinty is "an intelligent, capable person with impressive credentials, but she has been hyper-partisan for years." The party-backed McGinty win is at the center of the national Democratic effort to retake the Senate, at Toomey's expense.
Senator Toomey previously endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio's failed presidential campaign. So, with all of the backbiting, and full-on rancor in the Republican Party over Donald Trump, what did Toomey do when he got into the voting booth.
"I voted for Ted Cruz," Toomey said.
Toomey acknowledges Trump "is in a strong position," because of "an intense frustration" with what Toomey calls "the Obama economy."
If Trump is ultimately the nominee, Toomey says the short answer is he really "doesn't know" how it would affect down-ballot races.
Toomey says his plan is to run his own campaign, based on his record, and contrast that with McGinty, whom he describes as a "very liberal partisan, establishment democrat." He adds, Pennsylvania is "famous for ticket-splitting."
