Evan McMullin er tidligere CIA-agent og stilte som uavhengig kandidat i 2016. Foto; Rick Bowmer/AP/NTB

Sist fredag holdt 120 Republikanere en zoom-samtale om muligheten for å danne et nytt parti. De navnene Reuters oppgir, er ikke prominente. Det er relativt ukjente navn. Den som organiserte samtalen, var Evan McMullin.

Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters that he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump’s grip on Republicans and the nativist turn the party has taken.

Deltakerne ser på 6. januar som et vannskille. Det at 139 Representanter og åtte senatorer likevel stemte for en kommisjon som skulle undersøke valget, var dem ubegripelig og uakseptabelt.

Call participants said they were particularly dismayed by the fact that more than half of the Republicans in Congress – eight senators and 139 House representatives – voted to block certification of Biden’s election victory just hours after the Capitol siege.

McMullin mener Republikanerne radikaliseres.

“Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening American democracy,” McMullin told Reuters. “The party needs to recommit to truth, reason and founding ideals or there clearly needs to be something new.”

Bare 40 prosent av deltakerne i zoom-konferansen kunne tenke seg å starte et nytt parti. Tidligere eksempler har gått dårlig.

McMullin said just over 40% of those on last week’s Zoom call backed the idea of a breakaway, national third party. Another option under discussion is to form a “faction” that would operate either inside the current Republican Party or outside it.

Flere av deltakerne under konferansen hadde bakgrunn fra Department for Homeland Security.

Among the call participants were John Mitnick, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; former Republican congressman Charlie Dent; Elizabeth Neumann, deputy chief of staff in the Homeland Security Department under Trump; and Miles Taylor, another former Trump homeland security official.

Lz Heney og Mitt Romney har markert seg som motstandere av Trump, men det er ukjent om de deltok.

Exclusive: Dozens of former Republican officials in talks to form anti-Trump third party