During a debate on Monday evening with his independent opponent in Utah, Republican Sen. Mike Lee indicated he may be trying to jump the MAGA ship. As he debated Evan McMullin, an anti-Trump ex-Republican who ran for president as an independent in 2016 and won more than 20 percent of Utah’s votes (including Lee’s), Lee distanced himself from Donald Trump and insisted he wasn’t licking any party’s boots. “To suggest that I’m beholden to either party, that I’ve been a bootlicker for either party is folly. And it’s contradicted by the plain facts,” Lee said. But Utah Republican Party Chair Carson Jorgensen wasn’t buying it. “I don’t think he’s trying to distance himself from Trump. What I think he’s trying to do is draw that contrast,” Jorgensen told the Associated Press. McMullin also confronted Lee about his text messages to Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows before the Capitol riot in which he sought advice on fighting the results of the 2020 election. Lee insisted he voted to certify Joe Biden’s win and was only trying to look into the legality and rumors surrounding swing states sending slates of false electors. “Senator Lee, that was the most egregious betrayal of our nation’s Constitution in its history by a U.S. Senator. I believe it will be your legacy,” McMullin said.
