For Immediate Release
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024
Contact: Olivia Taylor-Puckett, otpuckett@azdem.org
Kari Lake’s No Good, Very Bad Week
ARIZONA -– During a disastrous interview on Monday, Kari Lake was caught “empty-handed when pressed about Arizona election claims” when she admitted “I don’t know who exactly stole the election.” Lake’s self-induced nightmare continued when she claimed her attacks on John McCain were jokes, giving Arizonans reasons to question “how Lake can win over those all-important moderate Republicans and independents she trashed.”
Here’s what you need to know about this week in Kari Lake’s nightmare Senate campaign:
- Daily Beast: Kari Lake Is Empty-Handed When Pressed About Arizona Election Claim. When it comes to Kari Lake’s debunked theory of widespread election fraud in her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, she’s not even sure “who exactly stole the election,” she admitted Monday.
- The Hill: Lake: ‘I don’t know who exactly stole the election.’ Lake was pressed again on who stole the gubernatorial election from her and how it happened before the Arizona Republican acknowledged she didn’t know who specifically had compromised the election against her.
- Arizona Republic: ‘No peace’: The Kari Lake-Meghan McCain feud is escalating quickly. Here’s how. For Lake, the episode prolongs and makes public a common criticism she has received in her apparently failed efforts to win over support from former foes. Republicans familiar with Lake’s outreach to people like Taylor Robson, the McCains and former Gov. Doug Ducey have said those efforts didn’t include apologies.
- Arizona Republic: Kari Lake says her attacks on John McCain were jokes, but Meghan McCain isn’t buying it
- Arizona Republic Opinion: Kari Lake’s latest rehabilitation tour: McCain smear was just a joke. Riiiight. Or as I call it, the latest stop on the Kari Lake Rehabilitation Tour, the one that’s supposed to convince the moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independents who made Democrat Katie Hobbs governor that she’s a new and improved Lake — one they should send to the U.S. Senate.
- Daily Beast: Meghan McCain Slams Kari Lake’s Lame Excuse for Bashing Her Dad. Lake couldn’t help but immediately explain that she was shilling for more votes. “I want everyone’s vote, whether you are a McCain … if you call yourself a McCain Republican, if you call yourself a middle-of-the-road Republican, a Trump Republican, an America First Republican, I want your vote,” she said.
- The Guardian: Meghan McCain ‘repulsed’ by Arizona Republican who condemned late father. The online spat speaks to a larger problem Lake faces in her return to the campaign trail: she swung too far right for the state’s purpling electorate, and she now is attempting to look more moderate.
- The Hill: Meghan McCain rejects Kari Lake’s walkback of John McCain criticism: ‘No peace, b‑‑‑‑’ Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), went after Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake on Tuesday, blasting Lake’s attempts to dismiss previous insults against her dad as having been meant as jokes.
- Newsweek: Meghan McCain Shuts Down Kari Lake’s Offer To Meet Up in Scathing Post. Meghan McCain ripped into Lake following her interview, writing on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, “Kari Lake is trying to walk back her continued attacks on my Dad (& family) and all of his loyal supporters after telling them to ‘get the hell out’. Guess she realized she can’t become a Senator without us. No peace, b****. We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.”
- Washington Examiner: ‘NO PEACE, B****!’: Meghan McCain rejects Kari Lake’s offer to bury the hatchet. McCain claimed Tuesday that Lake was attempting to “walk back” comments she made about the late John McCain in 2022 when she told “McCain Republicans” to “get the hell out” of a campaign event. In a recent interview, Lake brushed off the comment, saying that it had been made in jest and that the former senator probably would have laughed at the joke because he had “a great sense of humor.” “Guess she realized she can’t become a Senator without us,” McCain wrote on X. “No peace, b****. We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.”
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