For Immediate Release
Monday, January 8th, 2024
Contact: Olivia Taylor-Puckett, otpuckett@azdem.org
Report Details Kari Lake’s Association with Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists
ARIZONA -– The Arizona Republic’s recent report detailing Kari Lake’s show on a new far-right online network, AFN, reveals Lake’s continued association with extremists, insurrectionists, and conspiracy theorists as 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.”
Kari Lake is “still an extremist” as highlighted by Arizona columnists, reporters, and commentators, and revealed by Lake herself as she continues to expand her network of extremist collaborators through her show on AFN.
In working with AFN, Lake has aligned herself with its founder, Joshua Feuerstein, a “far-right evangelical pastor” who was present on January 6th and said “It is time for war! Let us stop the steal!” In 2019, Feuerstein said “I need you to know that 2020 is a civil war that will change the face of America forever,” and in 2023 he said, “In order to be peaceful, you must first be capable of extreme violence. Otherwise, you’re just weak. Be dangerous, but peaceful.”
AFN – the network founded by Feuerstein – is described as “[providing] a torrent of conspiracy theories and hatred” to its audience. AFN operates alongside End Time Ministries, whose founder Irving Lee Baxter Jr., proclaimed the apocalypse was coming and died of COVID after claiming it may be a judgment “of God” over society’s sins.
On her show, Lake has continued to elevate dangerous conspiracy theorists in her interviews with:
- Roseanne Barr, who “scream[ed] about unhinged Stalinist Nazi Caliphate Conspiracy” at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix last month.
- Eric Trump, a prolific pusher of conspiracy theories who appeared at “ReAwaken America” alongside speakers who “promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”
- Roger Stone, a convicted felon, Kari Lake’s “personal hero,” and one of the architects of the fake elector scheme.
“Kari Lake’s new relationships with Joshua Feuerstein and AFN, and continued association with Barr, Trump, and Stone, demonstrate her priorities lie in pushing dangerous conspiracy theories and relitigating elections instead of the kitchen table issues that Arizonans care about,” said Olivia Taylor-Puckett, Senior Communications Advisor for the Arizona Democratic Party.
Read more on Kari Lake’s partnerships with extremists here.
###