PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey delivered his farewell address Thursday on Capitol Hill.
In the more than 20-minute speech, the Pennsylvania Republican thanked his family, his staff and his fellow senators, including his Democratic counterpart, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.
“I don’t think you could ask for a more collegial, thoughtful colleague than the fella that shares the senatorial responsibilities with me for Pennsylvania,” Toomey said of Casey. “Fact is, we cancel each other’s vote out almost every time — that is a true fact. But we’ve also worked together when we could.”
Toomey then directly addressed his Republican Party, asking them to reject extremism and isolationism.
“Our party can’t be about or beholden to any one man,” he said. “We’re much bigger than that. Our party is much bigger than that. We are the political representation of this huge center-right coalition across America.
“I hope we resist the temptation to adopt the protectionist, nativist, isolationist, redistributive policies that some are suggesting we embrace. I think those are inconsistent with the core values of a majority of the people in this coalition. More important, I think those ideas lead to bad outcomes for our country.”
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He also asked his fellow senators not to remove the filibuster, which has been a heated legislative issue in recent years.
Toomey, who did not seek re-election, is in the final weeks of his last term. He will be succeeded in January by Democratic state Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who defeated Republican challenger Mehmet Oz in November.