Lexi Lonas
The HillWed, 10 Feb 2021 10:34 UTC
© ABC NewsFormer CIA counterterrorism officer Evan McMullin
A contingent of former Republican officials are in talks to form a political party that would break away from supporters of former President Trump,
Reuters reported on Wednesday.
More than 120 people were on a call on the matter on Friday, including former government employees who worked under the Trump administration, the Reagan administration and both Bush White House's as well as former GOP members of Congress.Evan McMullin, former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference,
told Reuters that he co-hosted the call with former officials who fear a large faction of the party is unwilling to stand up to Trump.
"Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening American democracy," McMullin told Reuters. "The party needs to recommit to truth, reason and founding ideals or there clearly needs to be something new."
The discussion included talk of both running candidates and supporting center-right candidates that are Republican, Democrat or independent.
Reuters reported that officials were dismayed that a significant contingent of Republicans
still voted to overturn the election results hours after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Most Republican senators have said they will not support convicting Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection after his second impeachment trial, which is currently underway.
Jason Miller, who now serves as a Trump spokesman told Reuters in a response to the call:
"These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden."
Comment: New party? Guess who wants to be the candidate. McMullen, in fact,
ran for president in 2016 as a third-party conservative alternative to both Trump and Clinton. His take, at that time:
"Hillary Clinton is a corrupt career politician who has recklessly handled classified information in an attempt to avoid accountability and put American lives at risk, including those of my former colleagues," he said. "She fails the basic tests of judgment and ethics any candidate for president must meet."
As for Donald Trump, he "appeals to the worst fears of Americans at a time we need unity, not division," McMullin said. "Republicans are deeply divided by a man who is perilously close to gaining the most powerful position in the world, and many rightly see him as a real threat to our republic."
McMullin's candidacy, backed by some Republicans, shows how the never-Trump movement is still working to upend him even with less than three months left until the general election. McMullin may be a long shot but will have an organization behind him, if unofficially.
He served as a Mormon missionary in Brazil and as a volunteer refugee resettlement officer in Amman, Jordan. After he left the CIA in 2011, McMullin went to work for Goldman Sachs in the San Francisco Bay Area and in 2013 became a senior adviser on national security issues for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
A spokesman for the House Republican Conference, Nate Hodson, said, "The House Republican Conference has zero knowledge of his intentions."
Comment: New party? Guess who wants to be the candidate. McMullen, in fact, ran for president in 2016 as a third-party conservative alternative to both Trump and Clinton. His take, at that time: