Free Republic

Last week, the Washington Post created a 90-minute wonder with a scoop: leaked audio from a meeting of House Republicans supposedly contained an admission from Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that Vladimir Putin had paid off Donald Trump. It became painfully obvious that McCarthy and several Republicans were joking during this exchange, but at least for a brief period of time, it was hot news. It did leave another question, though — who was the leaker? Hugh Hewitt asked Paul Ryan about the whodunit this morning, and whether he believed the rumor that former Capitol Hill staffer-turned-presidential candidate Evan McMullin engineered...

Owes nearly $670,000 for failed presidential bid Evan McMullin Up To His #NeverTrump Eyeballs in Campaign Debt Posted by Fuzzy Slippers    Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 8:30am Owes nearly $670,000 for failed presidential bid Evan McMullin exploded onto the 2016 presidential election scene as an Independent with a message of conservative values and Reagan-esque ideals.  He didn’t make a blip on the radar, and following President Trump’s election has turned his sour grapes into a #NeverTrump box of sickly-sweet wine that reeks of desperation and, worse, of self-aggrandizement.To top off his head-spinning fall from grace, McMullin owes nearly...

Former presidential candidate Evan McMullin was one of several Utah Republicans who were eyeing a congressional run in 2018 after the surprise retirement announcement of Rep. Jason Chaffetz. McMullin confirmed in a Thursday morning email to the Washington Examiner that he had been weighing a challenge to either Sen. Orrin Hatch or Chaffetz in the 2018 Republican primary, and indicated that the congressman's decision to retire could make a run for the 3rd district appealing.

Pseudo-conservative Foreign Policy blogger Max Boot is making the outrageous claim that the entire Republican Party has been taken over by a dangerous racist fringe. Boot’s insane argument rests on one core contention: that because Republicans tolerate, even like, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a patriot and a truly courageous conservative champion, their party has therefore fallen into the hands of white nationalists. The fact that King isn’t actually a white nationalist or a racist, which is the real thing Boot is accusing the lawmaker of, in no way hinders the writer from making his pitch. Nor does the unbalanced Boot...

SALT LAKE CITY — Former presidential hopeful Evan McMullin stated Friday he may run for public office again and is considering the possibility of challenging either Rep. Jason Chaffetz or Senator Orrin Hatch. McMullin made the comments Friday during an AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on Reddit in the “EnoughTrumpSpam subreddit. One user asked McMullin if he is considering running against Jason Chaffetz in 2018, and McMullin responded from a verified Reddit account to say he is considering such a move but must consider the desires of Utah constituents.

Former CIA operative and 2016 third-party presidential candidate Evan McMullin took to Twitter and CNN on Wednesday to defend rogue intelligence agents who break the law to leak classified information, saying President Donald Trump “presents a threat to the country.” In response to President Trump’s tweets earlier Wednesday, in which he alleged that elements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency were engaged in “Russia”-style political operations, McMullin tweeted:

"It is possible that I will challenge Chaffetz or Senator Hatch, but there are a lot of factors that go into that decision," McMullin said. "One of the primary factors is what the people of Utah want. Plenty of people outside of Utah or who do not vote in the Republican primary are eager to see Chaffetz replaced

Don Peay says the 54 percent of Utah voters — especially Mormon Republicans — who didn't cast their presidential ballots for Donald Trump need to do at least one thing: repent. The former head of the Trump campaign in the Beehive State told the Utah County Republican Women group Monday night, according to Provo's Daily Herald, that "the people who did not get behind Trump probably need to look at themselves in the mirror and say, 'Maybe I need to show a little bit of humility and ask for forgiveness, because I was wrong.' " Peay, a Latter-day Saint and...

Evan McMullin has capitalized on Donald Trump’s Utah freakout with a spectacular weekend of media coverage. First there was his interview on ‘Meet the Press’ :

Donald Trump repeated a nickname mocking one of his formal presidential rivals at his rally on Friday night, calling Evan McMullin “McMuffin.” While reminiscing about watching the polls close on election night, Trump referred to the conservative third-party McMullin as a “character that nobody ever saw before, nobody ever heard of him before." When someone in the audience chimed in to call the former Independent candidate “McMuffin,” Trump repeated it. "That’s correct, that’s his name, he said Evan McMuffin, do you believe this?” Trump said. “I never heard of this guy before. Nobody did. And the polls said he’s even...

Former conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin on Saturday accused President-elect Donald Trump of not being "a loyal American." McMullin, a former CIA operative and House GOP aide, made the comment while slamming Trump's reported pick of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State. “It must be clear that Donald Trump is not a loyal American and we should prepare for the next four years accordingly," McMullin wrote on Twitter.

On July 7, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, met privately with House Republicans near the Capitol. I was present as chief policy director of the House Republican Conference. Mr. Trump’s purpose was to persuade the representatives to unite around him, a pitch he delivered in a subdued version of his stream-of-consciousness style. A congresswoman asked him about his plans to protect Article I of the Constitution, which assigns all federal lawmaking power to Congress.

SALT LAKE CITY — As presidential candidate Evan McMullin (I) and his team watched the election results come in Tuesday night, they were furiously rewriting his speech. They, like most of the nation, were shocked that Donald Trump was poised as of early Wednesday morning to potentially win the presidency of the United States. But McMullin’s core campaign message, that the Republican party had forsaken its principles and allowed itself to be hijacked by a parasite named Trump, was validated by the incoming results, he told the crowd of supporters here in Utah. As of late Tuesday night, Trump led...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Tuesday that he voted for independent candidate Evan McMullin for president.

I voted @Evan_McMullin for President. I appreciate his views on a strong America and the need to rebuild our military. #3

According to his facebook post, Glenn Beck voted for Even McMullin today. It's all about God and stuff.

Nearly a third of McMullin supporters are prepared to ditch him if they become convinced the election’s a toss-up. You’re seeing the conditional support for his candidacy again there: Utah’s in play if and only if the public expects a Clinton landslide, freeing more right-wing Utahns to vote their consciences. McMullin doesn’t even lead among Mormons even though he’s Mormon himself, a Utah native, and a BYU grad.

Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin on Sunday labeled Republican nominee Donald Trump a racist, calling for more people to "come out and say that cleanly." "Donald Trump is a racist," McMullin said in an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. "Trump is a racist brand. We need to call a spade a spade, and any American leader needs to stand up for equality in this country."

WASHINGTON — Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin was certified Friday as a write-in candidate in Texas after fixing an eligibility hiccup that initially led the Texas secretary of state to deny his application. ... In McMullin’s initial application, one of the 38 electors he submitted — Brittany Gilbert of Austin — was not a registered voter, said Alicia Pierce, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Carlos Cascos. As a result, Gilbert was not an eligible elector, and McMullin’s application was denied. But Keith Ingram, the secretary of state’s director of elections, wrote in a letter to McMullin on Friday that...

McDonald's made a minor change to its Egg McMuffins, and sales of the sandwiches have exploded as a result. The company recently changed its recipe for the sandwiches to replace margarine with butter. Adding butter had an immediate impact, driving up sales of Egg McMuffins by double digits, executives said on an earnings call Thursday. In addition to the McMuffins, executives said another butter-based recipe also helped drive McDonald's sales in the most recent quarter: the buttermilk crispy sandwich. "It outperformed the high end of our expectations," McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook said of the sandwich. The company on Thursday reported...