A few months ago, if you saw the name, McMullin, you might have thought they misspelled McDonald’s McMuffin. And Evan McMullin’s name recognition hasn’t increased much since then. He was probably counting on Bill Kristol, of the Weekly Standard, to rush to his support, since Kristol “guaranteed” an “impressive” conservative candidate—and gave us. . .David French, of National Review.
French went down in flames (and considerable laughter), so you’d think Kristol would embrace McMullin—a “true conservative,” former CIA agent, and exactly the kind of person Kristol said he was looking for. So what was the response from Kristol and the Weekly Standard? (Crickets.) There have been a few articles about McMullin since then, but Kristol has certainly not championed the McMullin cause.
According to the Christian Post, French says he was intimidated out of the race.
Conservative National Review writer David French, who last week contemplated launching an independent run for president, claimed Tuesday that Donald Trump supporters harassed his family members after being asked by the Trump campaign to intimidate them, while racist trolls took to social media to lambaste his adopted Ethiopian daughter.
After French announced Sunday that he will not be running for president despite pressure from Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, the Iraq War veteran told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that members of his wife’s family were personally accosted by Trump supporters over the phone, while racist trolls on the internet have disparagingly insulted his adopted Ethiopian daughter.
Well, how is McMullin doing? Last we heard, he had gotten on the ballot in enough states to earn only one-tenth of the 270 electoral votes needed. Of course, as we’ve said elsewhere, if no one gets 270, the election will be thrown into the Republican House of Representatives, and if McMullin earns even one electoral vote, he could become president. In fact, he wouldn’t need any popular votes at all—if a “faithless” elector decides to “vote his conscience,” like Chris Suprun, from Texas.
Still, McMullin is looking for “a NeverTrump miracle.”
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are unacceptable. Jill Stein is full of “weirdness.” And Gary Johnson is “astonishingly weak and dangerous.” But Evan McMullin, according to a memo the independent conservative candidate’s campaign is using to woo anti-Trump Republicans, is a miracle worker — and the one who can work the miracle America needs.
“The great American experiment has been challenges by war, economic disruption and cultural crisis before,” reads the memo, which was written by McMullin campaign manager and chief strategist Joel Searby. “Each time it seemed the great American experiment was on the ropes, someone stepped up. In this moment, that someone is Evan McMullin.”
Unfortunately for McMullin, he’s not doing well in the one state that is best suited to him. He’s a Mormon, and could appeal to Mormon Utah. But despite slamming and being slammed by Utah’s favorite Mormon, Mitt Romney, Trump still leads there, according to Hot Air.
The point of McMullin’s candidacy, I thought, was to peel off enough Republican votes in Utah to give Clinton a fighting chance at the upset there. Trump is unpopular among Mormons; McMullin is Mormon himself, was born in Provo, attended BYU, and is much more of a traditional conservative than Trump is. If he can pull, say, 20 percent in the state, a freaky-deaky outcome in which Clinton wins with 35 percent of the vote in a four-way race with Trump, McMullin, and Gary Johnson isn’t unthinkable. (A poll taken earlier this summer, months before McMullin got in, had Trump leading Clinton 29/26 in Utah with gobs of voters undecided between the two.). . .
McMullin’s barely made a dent — yet. A month ago, Utah Policy had Trump ahead of Clinton 37/25 with Johnson pulling 16 percent and another 21 percent divided between “other” and “don’t know.” Today’s it’s … Trump 39/24, with Johnson at 13 percent and McMullin at nine. Most of McMullin’s votes are coming out of the “other” and “don’t know” categories. If that trend continues, he may yet get to 20 percent but Trump could win the state easily regardless.
As noted, McMullin is battling Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for NeverTrump votes, according to The Hill. So he has turned his attention to Johnson, in the same way Republican candidates knocked each other, instead of Trump in the primaries.
Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin says he doesn’t consider Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson to be a “serious candidate.”
“I just don’t see Gary Johnson as a serious candidate and I think Americans are realizing that,” McMullin said Friday on CNN’s “At This Hour.”
“He has no knowledge of foreign policy, he spends his time advocating for legalized prostitution and for a drug culture here in America, rather than dealing with problems that are really big like our economy and our national security and government reform,” McMullin said.
That’s not to say that he has backed off on criticizing Trump, whom McMullin says has, “the judgment of a squirrel, according to Fox News.
McMullin is hoping that there can be an “undercard debate,” as there were in the Republican primaries.
Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is challenging Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein to an undercard debate.
McMullin on Wednesday told The Hill in a Facebook Live interview that he’d be happy to throw down with Johnson and Stein in a separate debate. It appears increasingly likely that only Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton will make the cut for the first presidential debate later this month.
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