U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey brought his weeklong bus tour across Pennsylvania to Centre County Tuesday night, stopping at Champ’s Sports Grill on North Atherton Street in State College to meet with supporters and continue his focus on issues of national and international security.
With his Democratic challenger Katie McGinty — who will speak at a government and industry lunch at Penn State’s Ag Progress Days on Wednesday — taking a slight lead in several recent polls, the Republican incumbent continued his 26-county tour’s message emphasizing his positions on security matters while tying McGinty to the policies of President Barack Obama and Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
‘It’s not rocket science,’ Toomey said. ‘When you see what’s happening all around the world — in Paris, in Nice, in San Bernardino, in Orlando — the world is a dangerous place and we need to take security seriously. It’s not serious when you’re releasing dangerous criminals onto the streets because they’re here illegally. It’s wrong and I’m not going to give up on it.’
Toomey zeroed in on three primary issues: Sanctuary city policies, the potential closure of Guantanamo Bay and the Iran nuclear deal.
From the start of the general election campaign, Toomey has criticized McGinty for not coming out against Philadelphia’s ‘sanctuary city’ policy, which prohibits police from informing federal authorities when an undocumented prisoner is going to be released. In July, just before Toomey introduced a bill that would cause Philadelphia and other cities with such policies to lose federal grants, McGinty called for greater communication between local law enforcement and federal agencies, though she did not outright reject Philadelphia’s policy.
Toomey said on Tuesday that the sanctuary city issue is important in Pennsylvania, citing a Honduran man who had been deported in 2009 and was arrested in Philadelphia in 2014. When charges were dropped and he was released in 2015, the city did not turn him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as had been requested. Last month he was arrested for the alleged sexual assault of a child in Philadelphia.
‘It is as sick and heinous a thing as can happen, and it wouldn’t have happened except for the fact that Philadelphia is a sanctuary city,’ Toomey said.
Toomey’s bill, which came to a vote before the incident in Philadelphia, garnered a majority but not enough support to move it through the Senate. He vowed he would bring it to the floor again.
He also blasted Obama’s efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, following the transfer of 15 detainees to United Arab Emirates announced yesterday. Toomey called Guantanamo Bay a ‘world-class’ detention facility that has the added benefit of not being on the U.S. mainland. He predicted that eventually some of its prisoners would end up in U.S. prisons.
‘When we’re down to the last few terrorists that no other country will take, guess where they’re coming? They’re coming here,’ Toomey said. ‘It’s crazy, and Katie McGinty is on board.’
McGinty has said she ‘applauds’ efforts related to closing the facility, but has said she has questions about it and not given it her endorsement.
Toomey also took aim at the Iran nuclear deal, which he called ‘an unmitigated disaster.’ The deal reached last year between Iran and a group of nations including the United States is intended to limit Iran’s use of plutonium and uranium while subjecting the country to international monitoring.
Toomey claimed that Iran’s continued ballistic missile testing is evidence the country does not intend to abandon its nuclear weapons aspirations.
In introducing Toomey, Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem praised the senator’s credentials on national security and foreign policy.
‘He’s been a champion not only in the international realm but also our national security,’ Dershem said. ‘I don’t think there’s anybody here that doesn’t put that as a high, high priority for things going on in our government.’
Though his stance on immigration and national security issues in some ways echo Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, Toomey has notably not yet endorsed Trump. Though he has called Clinton ‘unacceptable,’ Toomey has expressed concerns about some of Trump’s rhetoric and remains undecided if he will endorse the GOP’s 2016 standard-bearer.
Asked if perhaps too much has been made of that, Toomey said, ‘Yeah, but I get it. At the end of the day Pennsylvania voters are going to very, very clearly separate two totally unrelated races. There’s a race for President of the United States and Pennsylvania voters will make a decision about that. And there’s a separate race for United States Senate, and Pennsylvania voters will make a separate decision about that, and I’m confident about how that will turn out.’
