For Immediate Release
Thurs, Sept. 22nd, 2022

Contact: Josselyn Berry, Jberry@azdem.org
 

ICYMI: “Painful, Hurtful News”: Kari Lake’s Gotcha Attempt on Katie Hobbs is Epic Flop

PHOENIX– Kari Lake proved she has more of a knack for reading teleprompters than she does for legislation when she tweeted out a video after teasing “painful, hurtful news about Katie Hobbs.” Except her bombshell news promptly blew up in her face when multiple Arizona reporters correctly flagged it for the outright lie that it was.  

Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin criticized Lake’s ignorance of the basic workings of state government, saying “It’s disappointing that somebody that’s running for governor can’t read state statute, especially for someone who claimed they triple-checked their facts,” he said. In an interview with AZ Family, Wes Gullett, former chief of staff to previous Republican Governor Fife Symington, said of Lake’s stunt, “That’s why we have campaigns because we see if people are qualified to be governor. Reading bills is a qualification of being governor. You have to know what a bill says, how a bill changes, how a bill becomes a law. Those are fundamentals that Kari Lake doesn’t understand,” said Gullett.

The video wrongly claimed that Hobbs fought to purge the Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution from  Arizona’s classrooms—Except she didn’t. The bill in question, SB1289, had nothing to do with the pledge, national anthem or Constitution, and Hobbs didn’t vote to keep them out of schools. 

“Kari Lake’s complete inability to read state law is disqualifying for someone seeking to serve as Arizona’s next governor. She’s built her entire campaign on lies and disinformation, and this video is further proof of how unserious of a candidate she is with no real policies to run on,”  said Josselyn Berry, spokesperson for the Arizona Democratic Party.