For Immediate Release
Monday, Oct. 31st, 2022
Contact: Josselyn Berry, Jberry@azdem.org
Welcome to All About Kari, a weekly rundown in the runup to the general election on every radical and extreme thing Kari Lake says and does. It can be hard to keep track of tweets, ads and interviews, so we’ve done that for you. Enjoy!
Tweet of the Week
Mark Brnovich Calls Kari Lake’s Election Lies “Horseshit” and We Agree– Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich went on “60 Minutes” this Sunday and acknowledged that he’d found no evidence of a stolen election in 2020. Brnovich also went hard after Kari Lake for her relentless election lies. “Horse—-. And that’s what it is,” Brnovich told 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley. “Most of it’s horse—-. And I’ve been trying to scrape – scrape it off my shoes for the last year.” Brnovich also called Lake’s election denial schtick a “giant grift”.
In Meeting with Tribes, Kari Lake Excuses Campaign Manager’s Racism– Kari Lake was outright disrespectful to Arizona’s tribal leaders during a meeting of the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona. Hopi Tribal Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma specifically asked Lake about her campaign manager’s vile tweet mocking Indigenous People’s Day with a deeply racist photo of Native Americans. Chairman Nuvangyaoma told Lake, “I don’t think you realize the full gravity of that tweet.” Lake decided to further insult Arizona’s 22 tribal nations by excusing her staffer’s tweet and blaming it on his age. “They do stupid things…I can’t control everything they do,” Lake said.
Kari Lake Can’t Stop Endorsing Anti-Semites— Kari Lake has endorsed yet another antisemite, giving Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano her “complete and total endorsement.” Mastriano is known for his ties to antisemites and white supremacists. Mastriano frequently uses antisemitic tropes against his Jewish opponent, has attacked a Jewish school, compared gun control reform to Nazi policy and shared an image saying legal abortion is worse than the Holocaust. To offset criticism he highlighted an endorsement from a rabbi — who ended up espousing conspiracy theories such as QAnon and that Hitler was part-lizard. Not only all of that, Mastriano was also present during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Kari Lake Claims Abortion Bans Will Put More Rapists In Jail–Kari Lake thinks that banning abortion will lead to “locking up a lot more rapists.” Lake made the claim in an interview last Sunday during a televised interview by KTAR radio host Mike Broomhead. The outrageous claim prompted an outcry from advocates, including Jenna Panas, CEO of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, who said, “There are absolutely no proven connections between lack of access to abortion and imprisonment of rapists….I am confused and incredulous.”
Arizona Republic: Kari Lake Is “All About Selling Snake Oil” —In a new column for the Arizona Republic, Laurie Roberts condemned the “ugly picture” Arizona elections present, fueled by candidates like Kari Lake. Following reports of voter intimidation, death threats against Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, and Lake’s repeated refusal to accept the results of the upcoming election, Lake has created “chaos.”
Kari Lake Would Cancel Super Bowl Sunday To Push Dangerous Agenda–Kari Lake has a new enemy: The NFL and the Super Bowl. During an interview Sunday, Lake welcomed a potential boycott of Arizona from the NFL and other businesses, saying she’s willing to risk the loss of the Super Bowl, risking the millions of dollars it brings to the state. When Arizona last hosted the Super Bowl in 2015, the local economy got a $720 million boost, the largest ever for a Phoenix event, according to a study commissioned by the host committee.
Undecided Republican Voters Blast “Extreme” “Nutjob” Kari Lake–In case you missed it, even Republican voters are abandoning Kari Lake for her extreme and out-of-touch views. During a recent interview with 12 News, The Bulwark publisher and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell talked about her recent focus group with key undecided voters who labeled Kari Lake as a “nutjob” and “extreme.” In the segment, GrubHub delivery driver Nick said, “Lake just seems extreme.” Steven, a Costco contractor, called Lake a “brown-nosing MAGA Trumper” and said he “could not stand election deniers.”
Kari Lake Adds Homophobic, Islamophobic Pastor to List of Supporters In Latest Ad–Kari Lake added a homophobic, Islamophobic and overall bigoted pastor to her supporters in her recent TV ad. In the ad, Justin Erickson is framed as a simple local businessman, but the ad doesn’t cover that Erickson is a homophobic and Islamophobic pastor with history of making vile and bigoted remarks from the pulpit. Mother Jones reports Erickson is a pastor at the fundamentalist Desert Bible Church in Scottsdale where he’s “preached slanderous anti-gay falsehoods, has declared Islam a Satanic force and has advocated for ‘the submission’ of women within their households.” In a 2014 sermon on homosexuality, Erickson proclaimed that “fifty percent of the homosexual LGBT-Now-Q community, 50 percent have AIDS. One in twenty are child molesters, on the sex offender registry,” grossly false claims. Erickson also suggests that LGBQ people were predisposed to horrific crime and murder.