GOP Sen. Pat Toomey says Trump should 'resign and go away as soon as possible'

• GOP Sen. Pat Toomey said on Sunday that President Donald Trump should resign and leave office "as soon as possible" after the deadly and harrowing riots at the US Capitol on January 6.
• On NBC's "Meet the Press," Toomey, a conservative senator from Pennsylvania, stressed that a quick exit would be the best solution for moving the country forward, just days before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
• On Saturday, Toomey said on Fox News that Trump had "committed impeachable offenses" but was unsure of what articles of impeachment the Democratic-led House of Representatives would pass in their chamber.

GOP Sen. Pat Toomey said on Sunday that President Donald Trump should resign and leave office "as soon as possible" after the deadly and harrowing riots at the US Capitol on January 6.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Toomey, a two-term conservative senator from Pennsylvania, stressed that a quick exit would be the best solution for moving the country forward, just days before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

"I think the best way for our country is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible," he said. "I acknowledge that may not be likely, but I think that would be best. It does not look as though there is the will or the consensus to exercise the 25th Amendment option."

He added: "I don't think there's time to do an impeachment. There's ten days left before the president leaves anyway. I think the best thing would be a resignation."

—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 10, 2021

On Saturday, Toomey said on Fox News that Trump had "committed impeachable offenses" but was unsure of what articles of impeachment the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would pass in their chamber.

"I don't know what they are going to send over and one of the things that I'm concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something," he said at the time.

Read more: Secret Service experts are speculating in group chats about how Trump might be hauled out of the White House if he won't budge on Inauguration Day

On "Meet the Press," Toomey discussed not only removing Trump from office, but whether or not the president should be barred from seeking federal elective office again.

"The Constitution permits impeachment, conviction and prohibition against ever serving again, which is a separate vote," he said. "That that's permitted after a person has left office, which is what would have to happen here. So, whether that could be done in a binding fashion is really an open question."

He added: "I would certainly hope and I actually do believe that the president has disqualified himself. I don't think he's a viable candidate for office ever again because of the outrageous behavior in the post-election period."

Toomey said that Trump "spiraled down into a kind of madness" after his loss to Biden.

"After the election, he took this to an entire different place," he said. "Recruiting thousands of Americans from around the country to descend on the Capitol promising 'a wild ride' and inciting them to attack the Capitol building so as to prevent the Constitutional responsibility of the Vice President and the Congress to complete the peaceful transfer of power after the election, all that he could stay in office…that is wildly beyond anything that I ever contemplated."