Evan McMullin: What next for anti-Trump Republicans?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite losing the presidency and both Houses of Congress, Donald Trump still seems to have a chokehold on the Republican party. So what will Republican anti-Trumpers do next: continue the fight from within the party, or get out and create a new one? Evan McMullin is one of the most prominent American Republicans determined to loosen President Trump's grip on the Party, and one of the key organisers and strategists behind the Stand Up Republic group of unhappy Republicans.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is a political |
| 0:06.6 | activist fuelled by frustration. Evan McMullen is a Republican, his conservative politics |
| 0:13.2 | informed by his Mormon religious faith, his decade-long career as a CIA intelligence officer, |
| 0:19.7 | and a stint as an investment banker. It was the emergence of Donald Trump as a CIA intelligence officer and a stint as an investment banker. |
| 0:22.3 | It was the emergence of Donald Trump as a magnetic, populist standard bearer for the American |
| 0:28.4 | right that filled Mr. McMullen with misgivings. So in 2016, he ran a quixotic campaign |
| 0:35.8 | for the presidency as an independent conservative in a desperate |
| 0:39.7 | attempt to take votes away from Mr. Trump. Many of McMullen's warnings to fellow Republicans |
| 0:46.4 | about the dangers to American democracy posed by a Trump presidency now look eerily prescient. |
| 0:53.9 | But here we are in 2021 and former President Donald Trump, |
| 0:57.9 | twice impeached but not convicted, remains the dominant force in the Republican Party. |
| 1:03.9 | Already he started dropping hints about a possible return to the White House in 2024. So what do Republicans who have repudiated Trump do now? |
| 1:15.1 | Stay and fight or try to create a new Conservative Party? Well, Evan McMullen joins me now from |
| 1:22.2 | Washington, D.C. Welcome to Hard Talk. Good to be with you. Let's talk about the last few weeks. How discouraged are you by what you've seen in conservative politics since that assault on the Capitol on January 6th and then the departure of Trump and the inauguration of Joe Biden? What are your feelings about what you've seen over the last few weeks? |
| 1:45.3 | Well, certainly on one hand, I'm discouraged that the majority of the Republican Party still |
| 1:50.8 | desires the leadership of Donald Trump. Certainly, the violent insurrection on January 6th was a low point. |
| 2:00.3 | But I actually am more focused on some shifting sentiments that I |
| 2:05.0 | think provide some measured level of opportunity and optimism. And that is that a fourth of the party now |
| 2:12.4 | desires a new direction. And I know that seems like quite a meager minority, but of course, I'm someone who's |
| 2:19.4 | been fighting for a new direction for the Republican Party for over four years, and I had gotten |
| 2:24.5 | quite used to doing it with 10 to 15 percent. So now that a fourth to a third of the party would |
| 2:30.5 | like to move in some way beyond Trump shows that we're moving in the right |
... |
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