The #NeverTrump Republicans have a candidate to vote for who isn't Hillary Clinton.
Evan McMullin.
Who? Wait, I have to look up that first name again. Twitter can't figure out if it's Evan, Eric, Egbert... When I woke up this morning the guy had, and I am not making this up, 135 Twitter followers.
Very very excited about Evan McMulligan, er, Evan McMillan, er, Evan McMullan, what evs. Very excited. https://t.co/1omip31ilS
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) August 8, 2016
No, it's Evan McMULLIN. With an "IN" at the end. Don't type it in wrong at Google or you'll get some other person running for President to save conservatism from Trump.
Now he's Joe Scarborough's exciting new choice for Republican Party Savior?
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Oh, sorry. But hey, here is the video of Scarborough "leaking" the secret candidacy early this morning:
.@JoeNBC: Sources tell me that an Independent with a backing of GOP money will launch today https://t.co/TJClH2kvV9
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 8, 2016
Proof this isn't a real alternative to Trump is, no one let Mark Halperin in on it ahead of time. Pity, because Halperin's fawning interview could have gotten Evan McMullin a few more twitter followers.
Here's the short version of who this guy is, via TPM:
McMullin, who holds an MBA from Wharton and did a stint at Goldman Sachs before moving to work on Capitol Hill, has almost no public profile and has not held elected office. He has not regularly appeared on cable news, unlike David French, the other anti-Trumper who considered an indie run, and his most recent public appearance seems to be a TEDx talk on genocide....
In a statement to ABC News, McMullin said: “In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it’s time for a generation of new leadership to step up. It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President.”
The filing deadlines to get on the ballot in many states, Florida and Pennsylvania among them, have already passed.
I do want to applaud McMullin for his short stint at UNHCR and his TedX Talk on genocide, which if you watch it, warning, contains very disturbing images of victims of death squads. McMullan's argument that you can't just say "never again" to stop genocide is absolutely on target and that cause is worthy of attention.
That said, if McMullin understands the urgency of anti-genocide action, making the statement that "it's never too late to do the right thing" as your slogan to run against Donald Trump as an Independent...NINETY ONE days before Election Day? When no one has heard of you?
Evan! Sometimes it's too late to do the right thing! That's why Jeb Bush wanted a time machine, to go back and kill Baby Hitler!
It's clear that this is a race to get on the ballot in Utah and deprive Hillary Clinton of a tectonic-shift win there. And maybe he's Mitt Romney's stand-in to replace Reince Priebus in January as RNC chair and this is the way to earn cred for that? The thing is, he has no experience in fundraising, though Joe says "big money" (Romney, betcha the five cents I have to spare) is backing this candidacy.
"Almost no public profile" is an understatement. Sure, lots of people are following him now, but he's only sent 88 tweets total. 88. Tweets. And he's going to play catch up against the Donald Trump monsoon? He has zero wives in comparison to Donald's three. No bankruptcies? No nicknames? Really?
This is a guy who would not have been at the kiddie debate table during the Republican Primaries, folks. And since even Johnson and Stein haven't reached the 15% threshold to appear in debates this fall, McMullin's chances for more publicity than they are getting is up to...Joe Scarborough. Nevermind.
We'll see just how much money he raises in the next three days, because honestly, all the middle school mentality of the Beltway Media cares about is, "will this guy be able to afford to hire some of my friends as consultants?"
Good luck, Evan McMullin. Whoever you are.
