Friday, April 26th, 2024
ARIZONA -– Kari Lake appeared virtually at CPAC Hungary to praise Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán alongside far-right politicians and activists Jack Posobiec who said in February at CPAC “We didn’t get all the way there on Jan. 6 but we will endeavor to get rid of [democracy],” Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, January 6 organizer Kimberley Fletcher, and Paul Gosar.
Lake’s address immediately followed “extremist” Dutch politician Geert Wilders who is popular among white nationalists.
Lake frequently praises Orbán’s abortion policies, “falsely [claiming] Hungary hasn’t changed any of its abortion laws” when “Hungary has tightened its abortion laws and created cruel barriers for abortion seekers.”
This is not Kari Lake’s first CPAC Hungary experience. Last year Kari Lake delivered the keynote address, drawing criticism for “[sharing] a stage with the leader of a far-right Austrian party founded by former Nazis.”
Despite Republicans warning that “Lake looks increasingly like she isn’t a candidate that can win,” Lake continues to associate with and uplift extremists, defend insurrectionists and fake electors, fundraise with QAnon supporters, and boost far-right conspiracy theories:
- Kari Lake has repeatedly expressed her support for Arizona’s eleven fake electors, even issuing an official statement.
- This month, Lake encouraged political violence at a rally in Arizona, urging supporters to “strap on a Glock” to prepare for the 2024 election.
- Last month, Lake refused to answer questions about her campaign’s ties to a white nationalist.
- Kari Lake gave a paid speech in 2023 to a group labeled an “extremist, anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” Lake was paid $15,000 for her speech to the group, whose “executives drew national scrutiny for social media remarks after a 2019 massacre of Latinos that blamed the bloodshed on mass immigration, not the gunman.”
- Lake’s fundraisers hosted by “the wife of controversial ‘finfluencer’” and “wealthy QAnon supporters” are the “latest example of Lake […] undermining the notion that she’s distancing herself from sources of potential controversy to appease national Republicans.”
- Kari Lake defends Jan. 6 rioters on the Senate campaign trail.
- Kari Lake hosts “The Kari Lake Show” on a new far-right online network, where she continues to “burnish her credentials with the far right even as GOP leaders have hoped she would focus her campaign on issues more likely to resonate with the broader public in Arizona.”