Retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey Blames Trump for Fetterman Winning His Seat: ‘Had to Insert Himself’

Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) blamed former President Donald Trump and “ultra-MAGA” Republicans for the loss of his seat to Democrat John Fetterman.

Fetterman’s four-point victory over Mehmet Oz might spell doom for GOP hopes of taking a majority in the Senate. The party still has hope in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. But with the party’s loss in Pennsylvania, two out of three of those races would need to be won.

Votes are still being counted in Arizona and Nevada and Herschel Walker will face incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in a runoff next month.

Toomey told CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday the situation would likely have ended up more favorably for his party if Trump had simply stayed away from the midterms.

“I actually think [Oz] was a very good candidate in a lot of ways,” Toomey said before he accused far-right GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano of dragging Oz down.

“We had an ultra-MAGA candidate who never appeared to even attempt to expand beyond a hardcore base that was very, very committed to him. But he ended up losing in an epic beatdown,” Toomey said.

Toomey then laid into Trump, who has taken a beating from conservatives who contend the GOP would have performed better with independent voters had he left the races alone.

“By the way, we had three House seats that I thought we had a very good chance of picking up in Pennsylvania,” he said. “We lost all three of those. And again, I think it was a combination of a real problem at the top of the ticket, but also President Trump inserting himself into the race.”

Toomey concluded Trump’s presence in Pennsylvania, with crucial seats on the line, was “never going to be helpful” in the final days of campaigns Republicans could have won.

Watch above, via CNN.