In an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Donald Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, complained about the independent candidacy of Evan McMullin. The conservative former CIA agent and congressional staffer has been gaining on Trump in Utah (an historically strong Republican state) and even leads the GOP ticket in some polls.
“I love the people of Utah. I have great relationships in Utah,” Trump said in the interview conducted Friday. “But you have some guy named Bill Kristol who’s called it wrong for two years. He’s a loser. He’s called me wrong. He’s called everything wrong. He’s called the wars wrong. Everything he does is wrong. He gets his puppet to go and run in Utah. The guy takes votes away from me.”
Kristol, the editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, has publicly praised McMullin’s candidacy.
You saw this coming. Trump and Pence finally go after @Evan_McMullin. Trump calls him @BillKristol‘s puppet. pic.twitter.com/GKExwfDXZK
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 30, 2016
“He takes votes away from me, this man who I never heard of,” Trump said. Pence chimed in, “Nobody ever heard of him.”
Trump went on to say that if McMullin does win Utah, this could have a “devastating effect” on the election by blocking the Republican’s chances of winning.
The exchange on McMullin and Utah was edited out of the video that aired on Fox but was spotted in the full transcript by CBS’s Sopan Deb. Watch the edited interview below.
