SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 10, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — On one of the hottest days in Utah history, a day when temperatures in the capital city reached a sizzling 107 degrees, Evan McMullin, independent candidate for U.S. Senate, turned up the heat up another notch or two by roasting his rival, Sen. Mike Lee, in a blistering speech before a packed house in downtown Salt Lake City.
Flanked by Democrat Ben McAdams, former U.S. representative for Utah’s 4th Congressional District and ex-Salt Lake County mayor, and Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and ex-lieutenant governor of Virginia, McMullin, the former undercover CIA operative who volunteered to fight terrorists after 911 in the Middle East and South Asia, took direct aim at Lee for his attempts to help Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“We now know, based on his own message to Trump’s chief of staff, that Mike Lee was at the center of the plot to overturn the Republic. It was one of the most egregious betrayals of our nation, and the evidence is damning,” McMullin said.
“They tried to throw out Americans’ votes and to recruit fake electors to nullify the election and override the people’s will.
“Even as we gather today, they still push the pernicious lie that the election they tried to steal was actually stolen from them. And now they’re working around the clock to ensure that next time, they’ll succeed. They now threaten political violence, even civil war, if they don’t get their way.”
McMullin’s comments came during what was billed as a “marquee cross-partisan” rally, held as the campaign heads into the home stretch and the Nov. 8 election.
Joining McMullin was Steele, a lifelong Republican and party chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2009 to 2011. He called the race one of the most closely watched in the country.
“It gives me an enormous amount of pleasure to be here in your backyard for my friend Evan McMullin,” Steele said. “It is always great to see a room of motivated, excited, energized citizens … who care about their country,… care about their community, and are prepared to engage in one of the most historic and important races in America.
“Like my good friends Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, I am a Republican who has been abandoned by his party, and quite honestly, it sickens me, sickens me, to know that the party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan, the party of Bush has become a cult of personality to one man.
“The Republican Party of Donald Trump — let’s not get it twisted — is not conservative. Its orientation is not around the Constitution, or the rule of law, but rather, white nationalism and insurrection,” Steele said. “This kind of crazy and treasonous talk allows a man who lost the presidential election presidential election by 7 million votes — 7 million votes — to insist that he should be reinstated as president of the United States.”
“He can insist ’til the cows come home, it ain’t happening!”
From the other side of the aisle came McAdams, the prominent Democrat and former Utah member of the U.S House who told the crowd he “saw up close and personal just how broken our our political system is in D.C. — completely broken.”
“And to be honest, both parties bear some responsibility. Both parties give too much power to the loudest and to the most radical voices,” he said. “Both parties are beholden to big money, to millions from big corporate and to individual contributors. And I saw firsthand when I was in Congress how the voice of the many is drowned out by the wallets of the few.
“I honestly couldn’t imagine that it would get any worse. And then, three days after I left Congress on Jan. 6, it got a lot worse,” McAdams said. “These politicians they do everything based on how it affects their personal power and getting reelected.
“Let me tell you something, Mike Lee has changed and Utah needs and deserves better.”
With less than two months to go before Utahns cast their ballots, a new internal poll conducted for McMullin’s camp by Impact Research shows the independent candidate now holding a 1-point lead over Lee, receiving support from 47% of likely voters to Lee’s 46%. Seven percent of likely voters say they are undecided.
The poll, which appeared in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, shows McMullin is known to 4 out of 5 Utah voters and is viewed favorably by a 5-point margin, 43% favorable to 38% unfavorable.
By contrast, Lee’s favorability ratings are now under water, with 48% of Utah’s likely voters viewing him favorably and 49% having an unfavorable view. The Impact Research poll also shows Lee’s job approval rating has dropped dramatically, down 11 points since June, with 47% giving the controversial candidate a positive rating and 50% now give Lee a thumbs down.
The poll results were based on a survey conducted among 800 likely voters from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1. The margin of error was 3.5%.
Lee’s camp says its internal polling tells a completely different story. The campaign points to a poll conducted by WPA Intelligence that shows Lee with an 18-point lead over McMillen, 50% to 32%. The poll was conducted Aug. 4-5 and surveyed 500 likely voters by telephone.
If McMillen’s poll results are accurate, they appear to reflect a growing trend across the country, where the election landscape changed, starting in June, when the conservative Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, alienating and motivating an army of women voters.
Another issue seemingly hamstringing the GOP is the fielding of Donald Trump endorsed fringe candidates, whose divisive campaigns still embrace The Big Lie, as well as express support for the Jan. 6 insurrection and those behind it.
With a recent NBC News poll showing 21% of those surveyed ranking threats to democracy as the top issue facing the country — compared with 16% who called the economy the top concern — the McMullin campaign is squarely targeting Lee for his ongoing fealty for Trump, and his recently exposed attempts to keep the MAGA leader in the White House for months right up until Jan 6.
“They provoked fake patriots to attack the Capitol so that one man could remain in power, even threatening to kill those who bravely performed their constitutional duties — something I never thought I would see in America,” McMullin said. “And that is exactly why we’re running to replace Mike Lee.
“They claim democracy in America has failed. They want a strong man instead. They insist there is no truth. They think they’re above the law. Now, in America, many have begun to believe these lies. Others tolerate them, either failing to understand their menace or hoping to selfishly benefit. They claim otherwise,” he said.
“Autocracy has never and will never serve the people. It is nothing more than a scheme to serve the very few at the expense of the man.”
In 2016, McMullin ran for president to “represent principled conservatives and preserve the Republic when this threat first emerged. Donald Trump embodied the corrupt extremist and authoritarian ambitions that I’d seen time and time again in foreign lands,” McMullin said.
“At that time, a number of people I believed to be principled conservatives supported the effort; one was Mike Lee. In July of 2016, Sen. Lee campaigned loudly against Trump on the floor of the Republican National Convention. In October of that year, he called on Trump to withdraw from the race on Election Day. He even voted for me,” McMullin said.
“After Trump won, it didn’t take long for Mike to betray his own principles, Utah’s and the nation’s. He quickly became a loyal sycophant for the aspiring authoritarian, trading away his oath to the Constitution to serve the unconstitutional ambitions of that one man.
“In October 2020, Mike Lee even likened Trump to the revered Book of Mormon leader Captain Moroni. It was a disgraceful and false comparison. Sen. Lee, Donald Trump is no Captain Moroni,” McMullin said.
“On Nov. 7, 2020, after all major outlets had declared that Donald Trump had lost the election, Mike Lee texted Trump’s chief of staff, quote, ‘Sidney Powell is saying that she needs to get in to see the President, but she’s being kept away from him. Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and to put several states back in play. Can you help get her in and quote on December 8?’
“On Dec. 8, the month after the election had been decided, Mike Lee urged Trump’s advisors to find fake electors, saying, ‘If a very small handful of states were to have their legislative legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates there could be a path.’
“And finally, on Jan. 4, 2021, just two days before the violent attack on our Capitol, Mike Lee informed Trump’s team (he was) spending 14 hours a day on the effort to recruit fake electors and overturn the will of the people.
“Those are Mike Lee’s own words. He didn’t just support the efforts to end American democracy. He used his power as a United States senator to help plan, coordinate and execute the plot. By his own admission he worked overtime to see it through.
“And this is Mike Lee, the self-proclaimed constitutional conservative, who as a U.S. senator swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Mike Lee betrayed his oath. He betrayed Utah. He betrayed me, every single American that has come before us, and that will ever come to follow.
“I think about my ancestors who crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago in search of freedom and opportunity, who fought in George Washington’s Continental Army who trekked across the plains in the Rockies in search of true freedom, who defended our nation from fascists and communists. Mike Lee betrayed them.
“I think about the brave men and women who marched on Selma and gathered in Seneca Falls for equal rights for the right to vote and to be counted. He betrayed them.
“I think about the patriotic men and women with whom I served, who left the love of their families in the warmth of their homes to stop terrorists bent on destroying our way of life. Mike Lee betrayed them.
“And I think about our children, all of Utah’s children, every future generation of Americans whose freedom depends on the future of our democracy.
“Mike Lee betrayed them too,” McMullin said.
“He betrayed 14 generations of American sacrifices, all to keep himself and his allies in power and after pledging to serve only two terms in the Senate. He broke his promise to Utahns and now wants a third term. And that’s despite having done almost nothing for Utah in 12 years.
“Sen. Lee, our coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents is going to help you keep your promise,” McMullin said.
“You will be a two-term senator.”
