White nationalist funds anti-Evan McMullin robocall telling voters he's gay

Voters in Utah are receiving a robocall in support of Donald Trump from a white nationalist named William Johnson, who isn't trying to sway them away from Hillary Clinton but rather Evan McMullin.

Johnson, a Los Angeles attorney, starts the call off by announcing his name and his intentions: "I make this call against Evan McMullin and in support of Donald Trump." Johnson says that McMullin is for "open borders" and an "amnesty supporter," then goes into McMullin's personal life: "Evan has two mommies. His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is okay with that. Indeed, Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage." Then, Johnson just starts speculating, announcing that McMullin is "over 40 years old and is not married and doesn't even have a girlfriend. I believe Evan is a closet homosexual. Don't vote for Evan McMullin. Vote for Donald Trump. He will respect all women and be a president we can all be proud of."

McMullin is a Mormon former CIA operative who became an investment banker and then a Republican congressional aide. He launched his long-shot bid for the White House as a conservative alternative to Trump, and he has significant support in Utah — a Salt Lake Tribune/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll has McMullin with 30 percent in the state, just behind Trump with 32 percent. After his parents divorced, McMullin's mother did marry a woman, and McMullin hasn't kept quiet about it — he told the Tribune that while he believes in "the sanctity of traditional marriage," his "mother has a different view. That is okay. I love her very much, and she is one of my best friends." He also told the newspaper his "greatest aspiration is to be a husband and father."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

McMullin condemned the robocall Monday afternoon, saying on Twitter that since he has "stood for liberty and equality in this race," it's natural for "Trump's white supremacists to attack me. A fight worth having." He asked GOP leaders in Utah if they will stand by as his faith is attacked and "baseless lies" are spread, and declared that Utahns won't be fooled by Trump's "bigoted, deceitful campaign."