CNBC’s Joe Kernen Throws Down With an Ex-GOP Senator Who Backed Trump Twice and is Now Bailing: ‘You Prefer Harris?!’
CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernen pushed back on former Republican Senator Pat Toomey after he declared that he won’t be voting for either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming 2024 election.
Toomey, who represented Pennsylvania in the Senate for 12 years, said he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020 but argued he can’t support Trump again due to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Kernan, unwilling to accept Toomey’s view, challenged him in a heated throw down on Tuesday, arguing not voting for Trump was a vote for Harris.
KERNAN: When you look at the presidential race, you know, guys like you, guys like Paul Ryan, they give me a list of reasons why Kamala Harris would be the worst thing to ever happen, but still won’t vote for Trump. And say something like: ‘Well, it’s not really a vote for Harris, and it’s not really, I just can’t.’ Because it is a binary choice. So a vote not for Trump is a vote for Harris.
TOOMEY: First of all, I voted for Donald Trump twice, in 2016 and 2020.
KERNAN: I know you did. But we’re not talking about that. We all are familiar with…
TOOMEY: But when you lose an election and you try to overcome the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point.
KERNAN: Okay, then… So you prefer Kamala Harris?
TOOMEY: Hold on, hold on.
KERNAN: You would prefer Kamala Harris?
TOOMEY: I acknowledge that the outcome is a binary situation, but my choice is not. Okay? I have the choice, and you and I are just going to disagree on this.
KERNAN: What if it came down to one vote? And it was yours that put Kamala Harris in. Then it is yours.
TOOMEY: It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice.
KERNAN [laughing]: It’s going to be one or the other.
Despite his refusal to back Trump, Toomey then also expressed strong reservations about Harris. He criticized her policies as “economically disastrous,” particularly her proposals to hike the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and the capital gains tax rate to 45 percent for high-income earners.
Pushed by Kernan again, he emphasized that his non-support does not equate to backing Harris, noting the “ answer” to a Harris victory “is Republican control of the Senate”, which he said was “absolutely essential.”
Watch above on CNBC.
