Transcript: Senator Pat Toomey on "Face the Nation," November 8, 2020
The following is a transcript of an interview with Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey that aired Sunday, November 8, 2020, on "Face the Nation."
MARGARET BRENNAN: We want to go now to Pennsylvania, the state that put President elect Joe Biden over the top. Joining us from Bethlehem is Republican Senator Pat Toomey. Good morning to you, Senator.
SENATOR PAT TOOMEY: Good morning, MARGARET.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Your home state, as we just said, put Biden over the top. Is it time for President Trump to concede?
SEN. TOOMEY: You know, 70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump and they and the president deserve to have this process play out. Now, I understand yesterday the media projected how this is going to end and the media projection is probably correct. But there is a reason that we actually do the count. And by the way, part of our process is to adjudicate disputes. It can include recounts. In fact, under Pennsylvania law, there's an automatic recount if the vote margin is half a percent. At the moment Joe Biden is leading in Pennsylvania by only six tenths of one percent. So, let's let this come to its proper conclusion and- and in the process, maximize the number of people who have confidence it was done properly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Joe Biden is ahead by more than 30,000 votes. I mean, you understand at a certain point that a recount really wouldn't just change the math.
SEN. TOOMEY: Pennsylvania law has an automatic recount, we should follow the law. Now if it comes to a lead that's outside of the automatic recount margin, then Pennsylvania law gives the losing candidate the opportunity to petition for a recount. The loser has to pay for it. And you're right, that recounts very seldom change the outcomes. I understand that. But there's nothing wrong with following the process in the law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you're not saying it's not being complied with?
SEN. TOOMEY: I've not said that, no-
MARGARET BRENNAN: --OK--
SEN. TOOMEY: -- we're not finished yet, that's all that's all I'm saying.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. We have to take a commercial break, but I want to continue this conversation on the other side of it. So please stay with us, Senator. And we'll be back with our next half hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION and to our conversation with Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey. Senator, just a moment ago, you were saying rightfully that it is well within the president's team's legal right to raise questions or to ask for recounts. But there's a whole lot of noise being made by a lot of presidential allies who are alleging far more than that, using terms like fraud, rigged. In fact, Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying he's asking the Justice Department to investigate claims here. There are nine GOP congressmen from your state who are questioning the integrity of election officials. Isn't this damaging overall to our democracy?
SEN. TOOMEY: You know, every election has some irregularities, we've had some in Pennsylvania in the past, we had some in Pennsylvania this time. They should be adjudicated. If people have seen, if there is evidence of fraud or wrongdoing, by all means, go into a federal court, get it corrected, punish the wrongdoers, correct the vote count, do what we need to do. That's what I think should happen. Apparently, they're going to be a lot of lawsuits tomorrow. We'll see the evidence. We'll see what the allegations are. I have confidence in our federal judiciary to make the right decisions about them, and then we'll be able to wrap this up and move on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So to be clear, you have seen none of the evidence that the president's lawyers say they have about--
SEN. TOOMEY: So--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --your state.
SEN. TOOMEY: Well- well, to be clear, for instance, there- there are some problems that need to be solved. For instance, in Pennsylvania, unfortunately, we have a rogue state supreme court that violated the U.S. Constitution and violated Pennsylvania law by declaring that ballots arriving after the Election Day can be counted, even though our statute forbids that. So, that needs to be adjudicated. Those ballots--
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know--
SEN. TOOMEY: --should not be counted. Now--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --those, those--
SEN. TOOMEY: --I don't think those are enough--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --ballots haven't been counted. Those ballots have been segregated--
SEN. TOOMEY: Well, then--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --and CBS News has learned there are about 8,500 of them.
SEN. TOOMEY: Oh- OK, so I think the number is probably not big enough to determine the outcome of the election. But observers in Philadelphia anyway, have not been able to get close enough to- to understand how that segregation has occurred. This is the kind of thing that should just be clarified. As I say, I don't think it's going to be nearly a large enough scale to change the outcome of the election. But it's understandable that people would want that corrected. And we should, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is future elections.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Broadly, I want to know what you think the message from this election was that the Republican Party has remade itself as the party of Trump. Do you believe that is still the mandate?
SEN. TOOMEY: Well, I will tell you unambiguously, this was a rejection of the radicalism that has increasingly been the driving force in the Democratic Party, the woke left had a major setback. I mean, nobody thought we were going to pick up seats in the House. Nobody thought we were going to hold the Senate, which I think is likely. We didn't lose a single legislative body across the country--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But the president also didn't take your state.
SEN. TOOMEY: --in Pennsylvania in our state House and Senate. That's right. And I think, you know, there's no question that- that personality traits and character traits of the president rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And that was probably problematic for the president. It certainly was. And- but- but, you know--
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
SEN. TOOMEY: --the outcomes that this administration has been remarkably successful with economic outcomes, --
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
SEN. TOOMEY: --with foreign policy. So I think the policy- policies have been accepted. And the broad Republican victories down ballot--
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
SEN. TOOMEY: --suggest that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Senator Toomey, thank you for your insights today.