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

Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans addresses the Utah Republican Party Central Committee as it meets to discuss what kind of endorsements to give winners of conventions in the primary election against people who qualified for the ballot by collecting signatures, Saturday, June 4, 2016.

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.