During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) agreed with host Jake Tapper that Donald Trump's star is setting and that Republicans are more than willing to move on without him.
During a conversation with the CNN host, the outgoing senator, who saw his seat go to Democrat John Fetterman, claimed Trump's popularity was already in decline and that his November announcement that he would be running again in 2024 was a disaster that only accelerated his slide.
"Do you think Donald Trump's hold on your party is finally slipping?" host Tapper prompted
"Absolutely I do," Toomey shot back. "First, I think his influence was waning -- not as quickly as I had hoped it would -- I think it was waning. After the election outcome from last month, I think it dramatically accelerates the waning and, frankly, his unbelievably terrible rollout of his re-election -- his election campaign is also not helping him."
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"I think you see it manifested in a number of ways," he elaborated. "One obvious way was quite an impressive turnout of prominent Republicans who have been going to events like the RJC meeting in Las Vegas, openly talking about themselves as candidates after Donald Trump had already made it clear he was running."
"So it tells you that they perceive the Republican electorate to be much more open and, in my travels since the election around Pennsylvania, I've heard from many, many formerly very pro-Trump voters that they think it's time for our party to move on," he added.
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CNN 12 18 2022 09 28 17youtu.be
