Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Sunday that he would attempt to urge his successor, John Fetterman, not to act and kill the filibuster.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Republican said he would tell Sen.-elect John Fetterman, D-Pa., and his colleagues: “Don’t blow up the Senate by destroying the filibuster. That would be a terrible thing for America, for our government, for the Senate, certainly.
“It would lead to a radical increase in polarization, volatility in policy. It would be a really bad idea,” Toomey told host Jake Tapper.
Fetterman is one of seven new senators elected in November but the only one not from the GOP. The others are Katie Britt, R-Ala., Ted Budd, R-N.C., Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Toomey encouraged Fetterman to listen to his constituents, noting that he saw more visitors from the state than any other senator.
“One of the things that’s great about Pennsylvania, the proximity to Washington meant that, for 12 years, I got a lot of visits, aside from the COVID period,” Toomey said. “People could come down and make their case.”
Toomey was initially elected in the tea party wave of 2010 but was branded by critics as a "RINO" (Republican in name only). He sometimes expressed resistance to former President Donald Trump and America First initiatives.
“There is a tendency — and this happens on both sides of the aisle — there’s a tendency to rally around the guy who’s being attacked by the other side,” Toomey told Tapper. “Nobody was ever attacked more than Donald Trump was, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not. And he fought back aggressively.
“And so when Republicans had criticisms of him — I certainly think mine were valid — that doesn’t always sit well with folks who see him as carrying the fight to the other side,” he said.
He expects Trump’s influence to fade, and those cast out by Trump or his followers will be brought back.