ARIZONA -– Today, the Arizona Republic reported “a defensive Kari Lake acknowledged in a radio interview Monday she couldn’t identify exactly who ‘stole’ her gubernatorial election,” doubles down on banning abortion by saying “she doesn’t support the availability of” medication abortions, and appeared sympathetic to Vladimir Putin.

Lake has a yearslong extreme record on abortion, captured on camera, including everything from Lake’s celebration of the fall of Roe to support for banning abortions without exceptions for rape or incest for Arizonans. Lake also says her positions on abortion “haven’t changed, actually.” 

Kari Lake continues to refuse to concede her gubernatorial election despite launching her campaign for Senate, publicly being told by national Republicans to leave election denialism behind, losing in court yet again, and struggling with Arizona voters who are “so sick and tired of Kari Lake’s whining.”

Read more: 

Arizona Republic: Kari Lake can’t say who ‘stole’ her election, says criticism of McCain was meant as a joke

By Ron Hansen

February 20th, 2024

Key Points:

• A defensive Kari Lake acknowledged in a radio interview Monday she couldn’t identify exactly who “stole” her gubernatorial election, said Ukraine “is lost” to Russia…

• Lake also now says her past criticism of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that offended and alienated many of his supporters was meant in jest.

• Lake sidestepped her professed support for Arizona’s territorial-era ban on nearly all abortions during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign… 

• As a gubernatorial candidate, Lake said she was “incredibly thrilled” about Arizona following its territorial-era law that “will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother.”

• Lake said Monday she doesn’t support the availability of a pill that terminates pregnancy, saying she doesn’t think women should be taking medication that carries the risk of hemorrhaging.

• Lake was asked her views about leaving NATO and standing with European allies after former President Donald Trump said last week he would support allowing Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who haven’t met financial benchmarks for military spending.

• Lake didn’t address leaving the treaty or endorse attacks on America’s allies, but she didn’t criticize Trump’s view, either.

• Asked whether “Russia is our friend” after the death this month of dissident Alexei Navalny, Lake responded, “I think when it comes to Ukraine the people of this country are tired of pouring their hard-earned money into it. It’s very obvious when the spring offensive went nowhere in Ukraine that that war was lost. You’d have to be a fool to think it’s still salvageable…”

• Lake said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson showed he is willing to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

• The interview shifted to Lake’s ongoing efforts to overturn her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race. Lake was asked who stole the election from her and how they did it. She noted that she wasn’t the one raising the issue, then conceded she lacked the details of the “rigged” election she has widely discussed…

• Pressed again on her baseless allegation of theft, Lake said the elections “are run very poorly.”

• “I don’t know who exactly stole the election, but there are a lot of people who are running elections poorly and we’ve seen the result,” Lake said…

• Lake was asked about her efforts at repairing relations with Republicans who opposed her in 2022, such as former Gov. Doug Ducey or former gubernatorial opponents Karrin Taylor Robson and Matt Salmon. She claimed “I have many” people who have switched to support her now, though she didn’t name any.

• Lake also addressed her broadsides against McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee who died in 2018.

• In November 2022, Lake lashed out during a campaign event, asking, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!”

• She said the GOP “was the party of McCain. It was bad. Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”

• Lake said all Republicans “need to get a little bit thicker skin because we’re going through some tough stuff right now and we need to be able to take a joke.”