Senate hopeful Evan McMullin faced rapturous booing from the debate crowd in Utah on Monday after calling incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R) a traitor to the Constitution.
The stunning assertion happened as McMullin, an independent with the endorsement of Utah’s Democratic Party, decried Lee’s skepticism toward and behavior around certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, going so far as to call it the greatest betrayal of the Constitution in U.S. history. After the negative reaction from the crowd, Lee accused McMullin of lying and demanded that he apologize.
“I think you knew how important [the Electoral College] was when you sought to urge the White House, that had lost an election, to find fake electors to overturn the will of the people. Sen. 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,” McMullin said, at which point the crowd booed until silenced by the moderator.
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“Sen. Lee, you advised spurious so-called legal efforts to mislead tens of millions of Americans that the election had been stolen, and congratulations, you succeeded. As recently as this year … you’re still casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election. You’re doing a tremendous disservice to this country, Sen. Lee. You have betrayed your oath to the Constitution with this,” he continued.
Lee gave a heated response to the accusation before going on to explain his actions.
“Evan, that’s not true. You know that’s not true. You, sir, you owe me an apology,” Lee responded to applause from the audience.
“In the days leading up to Jan. 6, 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,” he explained. “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 election.”
Evan McMullin gets booed after calling @SenMikeLee a traitor to the Constitution.
LEE: “You know that’s not true. You sir, owe me an apology.” pic.twitter.com/3v2c7TUEJi
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 18, 2022
The Utah election is estimated to be close. A recent poll from Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics found that 41% of respondents are planning to vote for Lee, while 37% plan to vote for McMullin, although the margin of error makes the race a toss-up. Twelve percent of respondents said they are currently uncertain, further muddying predictions.
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“The Utah Senate race will be won on the frontlines by the candidate who can capture the ever-important base of moderate voters,” Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, told Deseret News. “Conservatives and liberals have largely made up their minds, now we’re going to see how the silent, moderate majority exerts their power. That is the ground both candidates want.”
