As Democrat candidates turn themselves into pretzels desperately trying to distance themselves from Joe Biden and his disastrous presidency, various notable Republican candidates are trying to create daylight between themselves and Donald Trump. Utah Sen. Mike Lee on Monday was one of those candidates.
During a Monday night debate with Independent challenger Evan McMullin, Lee bided his time, allowing McMullin to dig his own hole — and what a magnificent hole it was, as he made one unsubstantiated accusation after another against the Republican incumbent, beginning with the January 6 Capitol riot.
At the start of the debate, the moderator cautioned audience members to hold any audible reactions until after the closing statements.
Here’s McMullin, as transcribed from the video that follows below:
But for you to talk about the importance of the Electoral College, I think is rich. I think you know exactly how important it is and I think you knew how important it was, when you sought to urge the White House that it lost an election to find fake electors to overturn the will of the people. Senator Lee, that was the most egregious betrayal of our nation’s Constitution in its history by a U.S. senator, I believe, and it will be your legacy. Senator Lee is still casting doubt.
Boos erupted, which the moderator again silenced, allowing McMullin’s hollow diatribe of Lee to continue. Lee remained gracious, occasionally smiling and shaking his head.
Senator Lee, you advised spurious so-called legal efforts to mislead tens of millions of Americans that the election had been stolen. And, congratulations, you’ve succeeded. As recently as this year and even tonight, you’re still casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election.
You’re doing a tremendous disservice to this country, Senator Lee. You have betrayed your oath to the Constitution with this. And for this state, Utah, that was founded by people like my ancestors and yours who sacrificed greatly to finally realize true freedom, for you to represent this state and to cast away, to abandon, to throw away fourteen generations of American leadership, I think is a travesty.
Finally, Lee rebutted, professionally and to the point — and promptly made McMullin look like a fool for hanging himself:
Evan, that’s not true. You KNOW that’s not true. You, sir, owe me an apology. (applause) Listen, in the days leading up to January 6th when the votes were going to be opened and counted, I had a job to do. There were rumors circulating suggesting that some states were considering switching out their slates of electors.
If that were true, I would need to know about it. I did research on that, I made phone calls to figure out whether the rumors were true. The rumors were false. On that basis, I voted to certify the results of the elections.
Boom — game-winning shot.
Matt Whitlock, a former senior staffer for the late Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, blistered McMullin’s inexcusable accusations on Twitter, while also taking a well-aimed shot at the “deeply unserious candidate who pushed conspiracy theories about Russia stealing the 2016 election for the last 6 years.”
To Whitlock’s point, McMullin on October 10 made a fool out of himself on Twitter with a sophomoric attack against Donald Trump:
They had a guy. Do you know who I’m talking about? He was this orange guy with tiny hands who needed Putin’s help to beat Hillary and now his whole family is under FBI investigation.
Cute. Looks foolish, right? More on name-calling in a minute.
#Protip: Spewing nonsense about “orange guy” (or “orange man”) and “tiny hands” — along with equally nonsensical “DemonRat” or “Demoncrap, and calling opponents “losers” or worse, on the R side — says far more about the spewer than spew-ee, in my not-so-humble opinion. As a result, I stop paying attention at the first sign of childishness. Leave the sophomore name-calling nonsense to the kids and address the issue(s) at hand.
A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted from Oct. 3-6 found that 41 percent of Utahns would vote for Lee and 37 percent would support McMullin, if the election were held “today.” Independent American candidate Tommy Williams stood at 2 percent and Libertarian James Arthur Hansen at 1 percent, with 12 percent unsure of whomthey’d support, while 5 percent said they vote for someone else.
After watching Monday night’s debate, Utahns, what the heck? Mike Lee allowed Evan McMullin to lose the debate all by his “tiny” self.
Memo to Republicans running for office: Wash and repeat Senator Mike Lee’s Monday night performance.