For Immediate Release
Monday, November 20th, 2023
Contact: Olivia Taylor-Puckett, otpuckett@azdem.org
ICYMI: Kari Lake “Still An Extremist” [MSNBC]

ARIZONA -– This morning a new column from MSNBC echoes Arziona columnists, reporters and commentators who are all highlighting, how – after the “shortest political pivot in history,” – Lake’s new court filings seeking to overturn the 2022 election “should end speculation that she’s anything but a far-right conspiracy theorist,” all while she campaigns  “anywhere but Arizona.”

See for yourself:

MSNBC: This Kari Lake court filing should end talk about her ‘moderate’ views

By: Ja’han Jones

November 17, 2023

Key Points:

• Kari Lake apparently wants to run two elections at once.

• But a new court filing submitted on her behalf should end speculation that she’s anything but a far-right conspiracy theorist. And that’s because Lake is still trying to have a court reverse her gubernatorial election loss last year as she wages a bid for a completely different office.

• Lake’s filing asks the Arizona Court of Appeals to vacate the certification of last year’s gubernatorial election and order a revote.

• Even Republican election officials in Arizona have rebuffed her claims. One — Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer — is suing her for defamation over false claims she made suggesting he engaged in election fraud.

• Wednesday’s filing should be a lesson to media and voters not to be enraptured by suggestions or outward appearances that Lake is looking to moderate her stance. She’s still flaunting her disdain for democracy.

Here’s what people have been saying about Kari Lake over the past week:

• Arizona Republics’ Laurie Roberts:  Kari Lake 2.0 wants a new 2022 election? So much for moving on. “Well, that may just be the shortest political pivot in history.”

• Arizona Daily Independent: From a GOP pollster: “The problem Kari Lake faces is that she is the best known of the candidates and the least liked,” […]  “Lake, on the other hand, spent her entire campaign for Governor attacking groups of Republicans and never really stopped, even after the campaign was over.”

• GOP Strategist Marson to Arizona Republic: “I have no f—ing idea of how she can erase two years of just the most vitriolic statements on the RINOs and moderate McCain wing of the Arizona Republican Party and independents, for that matter,” […] “I don’t know how one erases all the brutal things that she has said over the last year and a half or two years.”

• Former Republican State School Superintendent Jaime Molera on KJZZ:  “She’s trying to soften her image here in Arizona with the McCain base. I’m not so sure how much that will work. Especially … when you look at the vitriol she’s spewed on John McCain over the last few years. I’m not, I don’t think a lot of his supporters will turn around and say, “You know what? She’s not that bad.”

• Marilyn Rodriguez on KJZZ: “She is a lunatic […] But no, I don’t think that Kari Lake is going to trick anyone into believing that she’s anyone other than she who she is.”

• PJ Media: Will Kari Lake Cost the GOP the U.S. Senate? There’s no doubt that Arizona voters have clearly made up their minds about Kari Lake, and it’s not good […] but it looks like Lake is not the Republicans’ best bet. Republicans have a huge opportunity to take back the Senate if they don’t screw things up by nominating bad candidates.

• The Hill: “‘I know she’s making attempts to try to come off as a little bit more of a moderated candidate, but that doesn’t necessarily match with what she’s saying and doing in the state,’ said Lorna Romero Ferguson, a former McCain campaign aide.”

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