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CNBC host GRILLS ex GOP Sen for no longer backing Trump in testy exchange: ‘So you prefer Kamala?’

September 3, 2024 | | Print Article

CNBC’s Joe Kernen wrangled with a former Republican senator who said he cannot vote for former President Donald Trump in November despite previously supporting him.

Former Republican Senator Pat Toomey argued with the “Squawk Box” host in an animated war of words over his refusal to cast a vote for the GOP nominee even though he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Toomey also expressed he would not be voting for Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Kernen confronted the Pennsylvania lawmaker who served a dozen years in the U.S. Senate, essentially telling him that his vote would count for Harris if he did not directly vote for Trump.

“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,” Kernen said. “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.”

“First of all, I voted for Donald Trump twice, in 2016 and 2020,” Toomey clarified.

“I know you did. But we’re not talking about that. We all are familiar with – ” Kernen began before Toomey interjected.

“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,” the former senator said, referring to the events of January 6, 2021.

“Okay, then… So you prefer Kamala Harris?” the CNBC host confronted Toomey.

“Hold on, hold on,” Toomey exclaimed as Kernen continued, pressing him about Harris.

“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,” the former senator insisted.

“What if it came down to one vote? And it was yours that put Kamala Harris in. Then it is yours,” the “Squawk Box” host shot back.

“It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice,” Toomey declared.

“It’s going to be one or the other,” Kernen said with a laugh.

Toomey made clear he was not supporting Harris and her “economically disastrous” policies like increasing the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax rate. He told Kernen it is “absolutely essential” to counter Harris with “Republican control of the Senate” if she wins the presidency in November.

Kernen recently called out the Biden administration’s proposed tax on unrealized capital gains, calling the move “unconstitutional” when Harris campaign economic adviser Bharat Ramamurti tried to explain the benefits of the tax increases that President Joe Biden recently added in his budget proposal.

“I think that this reaction to unrealized gains is a little funny, given that I bet that the majority of people watching right now are already paying a tax on unrealized gains. It’s called a property tax,” Ramamurti said.

“That’s an old and tiring argument. That’s always the go-to answer,” Kernen said, dismissing the comment.

“Well, look, you’re arguing that this is some sort of a foreign concept that is completely unknown –,” Ramamurti said before Kernen declared, “Well, it’s probably unconstitutional.”

Frieda Powers
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