An Anti-Trump, Conservative Republican Will Run As An Independent In The Presidential Race

Last week, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough enlightened the voting public about Donald Trump’s frightening inquiry about nukes. This Monday morning, he’s dropping a different type of bomb after the Republican nominee’s very bad week. The host of Morning Joe took to social media with a series of tweets which pointed toward several unnamed sources who claim a conservative candidate will soon step into the election ring and run as an Independent. Scarborough painted this person as heavily funded by the Republican establishment, who wishes to present an anti-Trump alternative. And this mystery entity has no elective-office experience but is fairly well connected and holds “an impressive resume.” Here are the applicable tweets.

The Republicans who are backing this contender are pulling a remarkably bold move. By their very definition, third-party candidates tend to divide voters, and since this person has already been fashioned as a Trump alternative, this would be a big gamble. In other words, those who would push this candidate must be more willing to increase Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning than to let Trump run the country for a term or two. Yet many conservative members of the party have never been satisfied with Trump as their candidate, and his recent run of embarrassing behavior — more so than usual — may have inspired drastic action.

Buzzfeed had an idea of who this person may be — Evan McMullin. And it looks like they were tipped correctly, as we’ll detail below.

McMullin hails from Utah and has worked for the CIA for much of his career along with spending time at Goldman Sachs. He’s got no elective-office experience to speak of, which is one thing he has in common with Trump. He fits the Scarborough-dictated profile since he’s chief policy director for the U.S. House of Representatives. And he bests Trump by not only attending the Wharton School of Business but by graduating with an MBA. For his undergraduate studies, he attended Brigham Young University, which would also do well for grabbing the Utah vote. Even if he could capture just one state, this would work a drastic effect upon the general election. According to his LinkedIn page, McMullin spent time volunteering in Jordan for the United Nations as a refugee resettlement officer. Surely, this experience gave him a more nuanced view of foreign policy than the Republican nominee.

McMullin has also been critical of Trump, just like millions of other people. The below tweet that calls Trump an “authoritarian” was made during the nominee’s apocalyptic convention speech, so McMullin may have been spurred to action — along with establishment Republicans — in recent weeks.

Well, it sure looks like Evan McMullin is making things official, at least according his updated Twitter page description. Can he make a difference — despite having no chance of winning — just three months out from November’s election? With Libertarian Gary Johnson already siphoning votes from both Trump and Clinton, this election could grow into even more of a circus than we’ve seen already.

(Via Joe Scarborough/Morning Joe and Buzzfeed)