Utah GOP chairman James Evans calls those booing at town hall 'thugs'

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The chairman of Utah's Republican Party says attendees who booed Rep. Chris Stewart at the congressman's town hall last week are "thugs" who hijacked the meeting.

Stewart, a Republican, was booed at the Friday night event in heavily Democratic Salt Lake City as the congressman defended GOP positions.

Utah GOP chairman James Evans told KUTV that the crowd is angry their party lost the 2016 election and they acted "the way thugs behave" and as a "theatrical mob."

Donald Aguirre, a co-founder of the anti-Trump group Utah Indivisible, says Evans' comments are ridiculous and attendees are constituents.