my guest is evan mcmullin, one of their key organisers and strategists. from within or create a new conservative party — what should unhappy republicans do? evan mcmullin in washington dc, welcome to hardtalk. good to be with you. let's talk about the last few weeks. how discouraged are you by what you've seen in conservative politics since that assault on the capitol onjanuary 6th and then the departure of trump and the inauguration ofjoe biden? what are your feelings about what you've seen over the last few weeks? well, certainly, on one hand, i'm discouraged that the majority of the republican party still desires the leadership of donald trump. certainly the violent insurrection onjanuary 6th was a low point and we could descend even further than that, ifear, as a republican party. but i actually am more focused on some shifting sentiments that i think provide some measured level of opportunity, of opportunity and optimism, and that is that a fourth of the party now desires a new direction. and i know that seems like quite a meagre minority, but of cou

my guest is evan mcmullin, one of their key organisers and strategists.

one leader of that effort, evan mcmullin spoke to as you few weeks ago. >> it's better for the countryommitted to that. and the republican party if it has to go through a period of division in order to recommit to democracy and our founding values and if that means losing a few races, losing some -- aro elections in order to retool and become a pro democracy party committed to our values, then it's worth it. >> now let's be fair. government workers and elected officials get a ton of things accomplished every day on the state and county and city levels. i'm guessing a lot of this is driven by what happens on capitol hill. and some of this just has to do with political leanings, making parties more progressive, conservative, or and this is a big one, more moderate. and that's what fast natures me most. that gallup poll, about a third party, also asked about party shifts. among the republicans, the plurality of them say the party should be more conservative than it is. independents who lean republican, say the same. but democrats they're very split. gallup found that most voters in the pa