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In Utah, Evan McMullin is not far behind Donald Trump in polling, with an average of 25.2 percent. | Getty

Trump attacks 'puppet' Evan McMullin: 'The guy takes votes away from me'

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GOP nominee Donald Trump is lashing out at independent candidate Evan McMullin for inching his way to the top of recent polling in Utah -- a heavily Republican state that Mitt Romney won by nearly 50 percentage points in 2012.

In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, Trump said that "nobody ever heard" of McMullin, a former congressional staffer who spent years as a CIA operations officer, and called him a "puppet" of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

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"I love the people of Utah. I have great relationships in Utah," Trump said. "But you have a guy named Bill Kristol who's called it wrong for two years. He's a loser. He's called me wrong. He's called everything wrong. He's called the wars wrong. Trump said during the interview. "Everything he does is wrong. He gets his puppet to go and run in Utah."

Trump seemed to acknowledge that McMullin could pose a threat, however, telling Baier: "The guy takes votes away from me. You know, we're going to win Utah. But he takes votes away from me, this man who I never heard of..."

And in a rare moment of vulnerability, Trump hinted that losing Utah and its six Electoral College votes could be fatal to his White House hopes.

"Now, if for some reason we lose Utah that could have a very devastating impact on the overall," he said.

McMullin responded to Trump's comments in a series of tweets on Saturday evening.

".@realDonaldTrump, Yes you’ve never heard of me because while you were harassing women at beauty pageants, I was fighting terrorists abroad," he wrote.

Trump is still leading in Utah, with the RealClearPolitics average of state polls showing him leading with 31 percent in a five-way race. But McMullin, who is Mormon, is not far behind, with an average of 25.2 percent, tied with Democrat Hillary Clinton. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson averages 7.3 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein is at 0.8 percent.