Failed 2016 independent spoiler candidate Evan McMullin is headlining the stunt event. The event is being billed as a “Convention on Founding Principles,’ and it appears that it’s being conducted in a primarily virtual format, undermining any claim that it’s more than a livestream. The faux convention is being billed under the wing of a Never Trumper group called “Republicans for a New President,” which primarily exists to enrich fat cat political consultants who detest grassroots Republican voters with donations from billionaire anti-Trump oligarchs.
McMullin, who suffered an embarrassing defeat in his single-state Utah presidential campaign, is advertising the convention as a celebration of his vision of the Republican Party. The former CIA operative and staunch neoconservative is claiming the event will help to return the GOP to its “pre-Trump” principles, invoking the failed presidential campaign Mitt Romney and disastrous presidency of George W. Bush.