ICYMI: “The Mess Is Already Here,” Lake and Blake Have “Paranoid,” “Erratic” Call [The Daily Beast]

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 12th, 2023
Contact: Olivia Taylor-Puckett, otpuckett@azdem.org
ICYMI: “The Mess Is Already Here,” Lake and Blake Have “Paranoid,” “Erratic” Call [The Daily Beast]

ARIZONA -– This morning, The Daily Beast revealed Kari Lake and Blake Masters had an “intense” phone call over the weekend, continuing a flood of reports that Arizona Republicans are facing an “ugly primary fight,” “collision course,” and “volatile match-up.”
“Cleanup in Aisle 48, the Arizona Republican Senate primary is getting messy,” said Olivia Taylor-Puckett, Senior Communications Advisor at the Arizona Democratic Party.

By: Zachary Petrizzo

September 12, 2023
Key Points:

After news broke in August that Blake Masters was considering another run for Senate in Arizona—potentially against his former ally Kari Lake—it seemed like a recipe for a MAGA mess. As it turns out, even before either of them have actually jumped into the race, the mess is already here.
On Saturday night, around 11 p.m. EDT, Lake called Masters to have a conversation. Earlier in the day, The New York Times published a report revealing that former President Donald Trump had spoken to Masters about a week ago to discuss his Senate plans, and The Daily Beast had just published a story—only a few hours before the call—on how Masters may be having second thoughts about running.
Sources familiar with the conversation said the call lasted about 10 minutes, describing the discussion as “intense,” “paranoid,” and “erratic.”
The call started with Lake pressing Masters on why he’s been “floating” his name as a possible candidate for the Senate seat. “Have your intentions changed?” Lake asked Masters.
“You should have been in this race yesterday,” Masters said, another one of the sources told The Daily Beast.
The phone call wasn’t all advice. Among a number of spirited moments, there was plenty of score-settling. Lake said she and her campaign did as much as they could to help Masters in the 2022 race. “And you ran and hid under the bed as soon as the election was over,” Lake allegedly said, according to one of the sources.
The conversation quickly pivoted to who was the more viable Senate candidate. Lake allegedly asked Masters if he thought he could win the Senate seat. Masters said he thought he could, according to a source familiar with the call. Lake then asked Masters if he thought she could win. “No, I don’t think so,” Masters allegedly told Lake. “Not based on what I’ve seen.”
Predictably, that set Lake off, according to the sources.
Since refusing to accept her 2022 defeat, Lake has only broadened her negative reputation, some Arizona insiders believe, perhaps making Masters the more favorable option for 2024.
That backdrop may explain why Masters was blunt about Lake’s shortcomings Saturday night.
He also allegedly told Lake that he didn’t think she’d been taking the Senate race “seriously”…
But Lake wasn’t just on the defensive. The former TV journalist turned far-right gubernatorial candidate claimed that Masters had turned to the GOP “establishment”—a dirty epithet for the MAGA faithful—and she rattled off the names of some mainstream GOP operatives who she believed were working for Masters.
According to one of the sources, Lake “tried to be cool and suave” about the call, but instead became “rattled” and “defensive,” while another source described Masters as “angry” and said the phone call was “tense.”
By the end of the conversation, neither side had much clarity on the intentions of the other, but the discussion ended in familiar territory. Lake allegedly claimed she won in 2022, and pressed Masters on whether he agreed. “Don’t you think I won?” Lake asked, according to one of the sources.

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