Anti-Trump Republican Launching Independent Presidential Bid

[procon]

Source: BuzzFeed News

Anti-Trump Republican Launching Independent Presidential Bid

Evan McMullin would make for an unlikely presidential candidate. He has never held elective office before and has spent most of his career as a CIA agent

posted on Aug. 8, 2016, at 5:12 a.m

Key players in GOP’s anti-Trump movement are preparing to launch an independent presidential campaign for Evan McMullin — a CIA veteran and the chief policy director of the House Republican conference — sources close to the effort told BuzzFeed News.

Veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson, a Florida-based media consultant and outspoken Trump critic, is expected to be involved in McMullin’s campaign. Sources said Wilson was in Washington on Sunday meeting with members of McMullin’s prospective campaign — which includes some who were involved in a group called Better for America, which has been pushing an independent presidential bid.

McMullin did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BuzzFeed News. He would make for an unlikely presidential candidate. He has never held elective office before and has spent most of his career as a CIA agent, according to his LinkedIn page. Young and unmarried, McMullin received an MBA at Wharton in 2011, and after a stint at Goldman Sachs, went to work as a policy wonk on Capitol Hill.


https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/anti-trump-republican-launching-independent-presidential-bid?utm_term=.yvdvNe7yP#.xsJYpE4o9


Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/anti-trump-republican-launching-independent-presidential-bid?utm_term=.yvdvNe7yP#.xsJYpE4o9

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Watching the GOP meltdown is wonderful.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Bachelor #1

THAT should make for grapevine gossip in the GOP

[rjsquirrel]

5. Lol my very first thought

after watching a video of him speaking...

He's smart, handsome, measured, articulate, and seems pretty damn establishment to me. Goldman Sachs, CIA, Wharton School.

And this is a two day story. They won't get far.

[mercuryblues]

2. at most

all this will do is peel off a few votes from trump. I say let them have at it.

[procon]

8. Maybe that's the point, yeah?

Hillary is siphoning off some Republican voters, too, and not just women. The Libertarians are also working to draw off more disgruntled Republicans. This guy at least has some political skills and more FP experience than Trump, and at first blush he seems relatively sane. If he's able to split off still more Republicans, he weakens Trump and makes him look like a loser, and that's something the rightwing base can't abide.

[WestCoastLib]

23. I don't like it

The goal is to give "smart" republicans an alternative to Trump, in order to get them to the polls to vote for downticket candidates.

There are a lot of registered republicans that might sit this one out, if they have to vote for Trump or Clinton. And that's what we want. Not them voting for someone else (and downticket conservatives along with it).

[mercuryblues]

24. I am glad

you put the quotes around smart. This is a sham. He can't even get on the ballot in many states. So the very same "smart" republicans know they are just throwing their vote away. The only positive that might come out of this is that he goes after trump to peel off his voters. Like Stein is going after Democrats.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. So, he's never held elective office? So what? Neither has Trump.

This should be interesting, to say the least.

[hatrack]

4. Bur he has something like . . . FIVE YEARS of job experience . .

More comedy gold.

[rjsquirrel]

6. At Goldman Sachs no less!

[artyteacher]

7. am i crazy in thinking ...

the cia is trying to stop russian sympathizer trump?

[procon]

9. Now that's an interesting twist...

I wonder how his hat got tossed in the ring? This late in the game, it won't be an easy -- or cheap! -- task to get on the ballot.

[still_one]

13. He may not be able to get on the ballot in some states because of the requirements. If he wants to

run as a write-in candidate, the appropriate papers also need to be filed in the respective states

[sofa king]

27. And A LOT of signatures.

That signature deadline has long since passed in many states. Ted Cruz dropped out two weeks before the signature deadline in Texas, which made me think he was going to make a go of it, but of course he didn't. A Republican can't win without Texas, so this isn't a serious bid on its surface.

Maybe they're trying to run this guy as Trump's replacement. If the insiders know Trump is going to go down for espionage, pitching a guy with solid credentials would make a lot more sense. It is my (limited) understanding that if the RNC changes the candidate out, the name can be changed on the ballots.

Get a loyalty-tested guy in the news now and have him waiting in the wings when the RNC has to find its ass next week? Eh, maybe. But it's just confirmation bias from where I sit, because that's what I already think is going to happen.

[sofa king]

26. That's what I think I see.

Several have taken the time to tell me that I am, in fact, crazy. Deep in this thread I gave the closest thing to a cogent explanation that I can provide. It's pretty iffy, but I'm over 50% on it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512345462

Consider also that 50 Republican intelligence community veterans published a public letter against Trump. That the President flat-out declared Trump to be "unfit to serve." That the Washington Post and the Voice of America News were the first to cover the now-infamous Republican Platform change. And that at least two former DCIAs spoke out directly against Trump, one at the DNC convention.

I think they all know something we don't, and they're trying like hell to get the message across without having to say it.

And then there's this craziness, which just boggles the mind:

http://americablog.com/2016/08/kremlin-attacks-criticizing-jill-steins-unfortunate-moscow-trip.html

How many candidates are being backed by the Russians? That may be the new question next week....

[underpants]

10. Morning Joe was hinting about this but couldn't cite sources or the candidate's name

I guess Buzzfeed beat them to it.

[RapSoDee]

11. CIA running the freaking White House? Smooth move, Repubbies.

Why don't the Republicans try doing something good, honest, or worthwhile for America just once. Just once.

I'm sure Poppy (CIA Skull & Bones) Bush - and his Skull & Bones SPAWN, are flooding their Depends with joy at this pEculiAr tWisT in thE kinKy wRinKles of tImE. Heh. Heh.

[still_one]

12. "McMullin Thinks America Needs to Show Strength Around the World & Criticized Obama for Leaving Iraq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_McMullin

http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/evan-mcmullin-anti-donald-trump-who-is-joe-scarborough-cia-house-republicans-independent-running-for-president/

[EricMaundry]

14. If McMullin is such a "show strength around the world" kind of a guy ..

.. he will want to talk about the Putin/Trump axis a bit.

[Ilsa]

15. My respect for Evan is limited to

his experience on an Alaskan fishing boat. Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs out there.

Oh, and he's apparently very bright. Kudos for being well-informed.

[mercuryblues]

25. Oh, and he's apparently very bright.

That right there makes him ineligible to be on an R ballot.

This just came to me. What if this is just to get his name out there? Whoever id backing him knows he can't win, but he may get name recognition for 2020.

[onehandle]

16. Krazy Klown Kar Part Two. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. He's the American Putin! nt

[kestrel91316]

18. There's a name for 40 yo Mormon bachelors.

It has 3 letters and starts with G.

This guy is going nowhere. The Christian Right would vote for Satan himself before voting for a Mormon, let alone one who apparently isn't into women.

[procon]

19. I just read that, and thought the same thing!

Would Republicans quit Trump to vote for the bald, CIA, unmarried, Mormon, investment banker, who might be gay? Or will they dump Trump and opt for the Democratic woman who stands for everything they claim to despise?

[Rozlee]

20. Too many hard-core Trump supporters will never vote for anyone but him.

Trump is a former strip club owner, thrice married and a braggart about his sexual exploits who never before his presidential run made references to his religious views. Yet, evangelicals abandoned a hardcore religious conservative like Ted Cruz for him. He's practically a messiah to white supremacists, the KKK and racist wing of the Republican party. That subset will be infuriated if Trump is ousted. They're not that small a group either. They'll see any replacement of Trump as the government stripping them of their right to elect their own leader. Large swaths of them will refuse to vote #NobodyButTrump.

[JHB]

21. Rick Wilson? Who was behind the "Max Cleland morphs into Bin Laden" ad?

Don't discount the ass-covering involved in this move. He's desperately anti-Trump, because unless he makes himself seen as vehemently trying to stop the Don, he stands to become a scapegoat for "how did we come to this?"

When the GOP establishment asks "how did it become okay for Republicans to attack veterans?" Wilson's name will come up like a flare.