Evan McMullin Warns GOP While Blasting Trump and Gary Johnson
The independent presidential candidate is hopeful of a third-party emergence post-Trump.
By David Catanese | Senior Politics Writer Sept. 20, 2016, at 4:55 p.m.
Evan McMullin, the former CIA officer running as an independent for president, says he aspires for his candidacy to spark a conservative movement that could lead to the formation of a long-standing third party in American politics.
The 40-year-old McMullin, who is sober about his chances in a race dominated by Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, is trying to cobble enough support together to prevent each candidate from attaining the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
That historic objective, which would toss the election into the U.S. House of Representatives, is improbable. But a complementary goal, he told U.S. News in an interview in Washington on Tuesday, is to lay the groundwork for a potential conservative, third-party movement if Republicans fail to roundly repudiate Trump before Election Day.
"I believe it may be necessary to start a new political party that rededicates itself to the cause of individual liberty and to tolerance and diversity in this country," McMullin says. "The most likely scenario for the Republican Party is that it becomes decreasingly relevant in American politics and that it cannot be saved anytime soon, if at all. I believe that it is time for a new conservative movement."
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http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/evan-mcmullin-warns-gop-and-blasts-donald-trump-gary-johnson?src=usn_run2016