Evan McMullin, the erstwhile Never Trump “conservative” alternative in the 2016 presidential race, positioned himself as a staunch pro-lifer on the 2016 campaign trail. In fact, as the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy pointed out on Twitter today, McMullin repeatedly hit then–candidate Trump from the right on Roe v. Wade:
Today, McMullin — now running for the U.S. Senate in Utah as an independent, with the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Party — has changed his tune. When the draft Supreme Court decision portending an imminent overturn of Roe leaked last week, McMullin quickly published a statement confirming where his new loyalties lie:
My response to the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade: pic.twitter.com/sARuwGRLCE
— Evan McMullin 🇺🇸 (@EvanMcMullin) May 3, 2022
Of course, a genuinely “pro-life Utahn” would presumably agree that the mass murder of unborn children could reasonably be described as “a public health crisis,” and that unborn children qualify as “those in need of our compassion.” But of course, McMullin is no longer really pro-life; as is true with so many of the most ardent Never Trumpers, the vapid appeals to “building a new American consensus” are more or less just cover for “embrace the entire left-wing program.” When McMullin talks about preventing “extremists from doing harm,” he’s talking about only one side. Abortion bans are extreme, writes the “independent” Senate candidate. But nary a word about the slate of blue-state laws legalizing abortion up to the point of birth.
When challenged about his transformation on MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan Show yesterday, McMullin intoned incoherently: “I am committed to the sanctity of life, but I think that means the lives of women, that means the lives of the unborn, of course, and it means the lives of children,” before subsequently reiterating that overturning Roe “is not the way for the country to move forward on this issue.” Echoing his previous statement, McMullin said, “I just think this legal tug of war is never going to end if this is going to be our continued approach.”
Right. So instead, the “new way forward” that the “pro-life Utahn” ostensibly wants to “forge” is neither “new” nor “pro-life.” When it comes to abortion, at least, McMullin’s solution is just more of the same. That’s fine; plenty of pro-choice Americans agree with the perpetual also-ran. But he shouldn’t expect anyone to take him seriously next time he waxes poetic about his “principles.”