More than 100 former Republican officials who oppose former President Donald Trump have discussed plans to launch their own center-right party, Reuters reports.
Former members of the Reagan, Bush, and Trump administrations and other former Republicans held a Zoom call with more than 120 participants last week to discuss a breakaway party focused on “principled conservatism.”
The party would run its own candidates as well as endorse candidates of various parties or unaffiliated candidates in other races.
Evan McMullin, a former House Republican aide who ran as a third-party conservative alternative to Trump in 2016, told Reuters that he co-hosted the call with other former GOP officials.
Former Trump aides, lawmakers involved:
The call included John Mitnick, the former general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor, and former deputy DHS chief of staff Elizabeth Neumann.
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent was also on the call.
Participants on the call expressed dismay that so few Republicans voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot while so many others voted to object to the certification of electoral votes after the siege.
Trump camp blasts “losers”:
“These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden,” Trump adviser Jason Miller told Reuters.
McMullin told the outlet that just 40% of participants backed the idea of forming a new party but expressed concerns about the direction of the GOP.
“Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening American democracy,” he said. “The party needs to recommit to truth, reason and founding ideals or there clearly needs to be something new.”
“There is a far greater hunger for a new political party out there than I have ever experienced in my lifetime,” an unnamed participant added.
