As McMullin Calls For Censorship, Club for Growth Action Launches Another Ad On McMullin’s Anti-Republican Comment

Washington, D.C. – Club for Growth Action responded to Evan McMullin’s baseless complaint and launched a new ad after the liberal Utah Senate candidate demanded that stations, “eliminate [from] your airwaves,” and censor Club for Growth Action’s “Charlatan” advertisement, which cited McMullin’s long and public record criticizing Republicans.

The new ad, “Parasites,” highlights more of McMullin’s criticisms of Republicans including his tweet that “the GOP is sick” and “invited racist parasites into Lincoln’s party.” Detailed research follows on McMullin’s long history of disparaging statements about Republicans.

Club for Growth Action has hired Brent Hatch of the Hatch Law Group, which handles the largest and most significant litigation in the state of Utah, as legal counsel.

The Answer filed today by Mr. Hatch on behalf of Club for Growth Action, states that McMullin’s “so-called ‘Introductory Statement’ is largely a political statement by McMullin seeking to mislead voters in Utah that he did not make statements that he actually did make.”

The Answer provides other instances where McMullin has made similar statements concluding that McMullin’s campaign “apparently has an ongoing struggle with the truth.”

“It makes sense why Evan McMullin wants to water down his past criticism of the Republican Party with just weeks to go until he must face Utah voters. But the unfortunate truth for McMullin is that he cannot run from his own words simply because they are politically inconvenient. McMullin has a long history of criticizing Republican voters and now that he’s running for office here in Utah, he wants to strong-arm television stations into covering them up,” said Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh.

The complaint is particularly surprising given that McMullin routinely relies upon brackets and ellipses to revise quotes when making his own political points. Club for Growth Action simply employed a similar, equally-valid editorial path in the ad: cleaning up McMullin’s quote from “there is an element of the Republican base that is racist” to “the Republican base is racist.”

“McMullin’s complaint is a transparent attempt at censoring Club for Growth Action and television stations across Utah,” continued McIntosh. “We believe this is not a situation where any television station should interfere with the public debate that is healthy for our democracy, especially considering McMullin’s voluminous, incessant, and public criticisms of Republicans.”

Research:

“The Republican Party, particularly as led by Donald Trump, has a problem with racism and sexism, independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin said in a speech Wednesday, vowing he wouldn’t return to the GOP unless it becomes more welcoming to all people.” (Salt Lake Tribune, 11/2/2016)

“‘Right now, the Republican Party under the leadership of Donald Trump is not open to people of different races and religions and background,’ McMullin said.” (Deseret News, 10/30/2016)

“[T]he bottom line was this: McMullin believes the Republican Party is rife with racism. ‘That’s the problem,’ he said simply.” (Washington Examiner, 10/12/2016)

“McMullin explained that he, like other Republicans, has heard for years from Democrats that the GOP is racist.

…

“‘I spent a lot of time in the Republican Party believing that that was something Democrats and liberals would say, [people] who weren’t interested in really understanding who we were,’ McMullin said. ‘But I have to say in the time that I spent in the House of Representatives and leadership and in senior roles there, I realized that no, they’re actually right.’” (Washington Examiner, 10/12/2016)

“‘I do believe there is a problem with racism in the Republican Party.’” (Deseret News, 10/27/2016)

“The GOP is sick. It invited racist parasites into Lincoln’s party years ago and they’ve sucked the values and patriotism from its body.” (Evan McMullin Twitter, 6/28/2020)

“[T]he party has been overcome by the treacherous cancer of bigotry and it must be defeated until it repents and reforms or dies once and for all.” (Evan McMullin Twitter, 6/28/2020)

“How far the GOP has fallen from the party of Lincoln to the party of Confederate insurrection against the United States.” (Evan McMullin Twitter, 1/13/2021)