SALT LAKE CITY — Evan McMullin, hoping to keep Donald Trump from the White House by winning staunchly conservative Utah, framed his campaign more as a revolt against the Republican Party than its nominee.
McMullin discussed his long-shot independent presidential bid on Wednesday during an interview with “Examining Politics,” the weekly Washington Examiner podcast.
In the interview, the Republican former Capitol Hill aide and CIA operative said the GOP and the conservative movement has gone astray. McMullin said the party has abandoned core principles and become hostile to non-white voters.
Republicans’ wayward shift is personified by the nomination and acceptance of Trump and his antics, but runs much deeper than that. That is why McMullin and his running mate Mindy Finn, who participated in the “Examining Politics” interview, said their campaign is about more than Trump.
“In the long term, we’re building a new conservative movement we think is badly needed in this country,” McMullin said. “The party needs to be more welcoming to people that don’t look like me, people of different races and religions.”
“I do think that there is a problem with bigotry within the voting base of the Republican Party. Now, I want to be very clear to say that that’s not uniform across the Republican Party,” McMullin added. “But the truth is, it’s, a hard thing to talk about and it’s a touchy issue and offends a lot of people, and so we’re careful, but there is a problem with bigotry and misogyny within the Republican Party.”
McMullin is threatening Trump in Utah and could win its six Electoral College votes, making his path to the White House virtually impossible. The latest polls show the two candidates, plus Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, in a practical dead heat.
Recognizing the danger, the Trump campaign on Wednesday dispatched running mate Mike Pence to Salt Lake City to try and shore up the Republican nominee in a state that is among the most reliably Republican in the country and should have been an afterthought for the GOP nominee.
Finn said Republican leaders deserve blame for Trump, because they refused to stand up to him.
“Sure he’s entitled to run, but leaders needed to make a full-throated argument against racism, sexism and religious bigotry of any kind. They failed to do that. Lack of courage was a problem here,” she said.
The full interview, featured on this week’s “Examining Politics” podcast, airs Thursday morning, and is available at washingtonexaminer.com; iTunes and PodcastOne.com.
