I’d forgotten she said it four months ago on the anniversary of that terrible day, but I was reminded of Kari Lake’s bonkers comment this week while reading coverage of her trip to Iowa to campaign for one of the heroes of 9/11, Donald Trump.
“22 years ago, these two men were among the many heroes that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11,” [Lake] wrote on social media, attaching pictures of Trump and then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “Today, they are being arrested and politically persecuted for questioning corruption in our Government.”
No, they’re not being indicted for questioning corruption, but for enabling corruption to overturn an election. Lake should know, she was part of it, and now she’s facing a defamation lawsuit similar to the one that bankrupted Giuliani.
Lake was primarily in Iowa to campaign for herself—for the VP slot on Trump’s ticket. That’s not likely to happen and Trump let everyone know that during his speech touting his “landslide” victory, when about 7 percent of Iowa’s nearly 720,000 registered Republicans voted for the insurrectionist, rapist, and con man. Bigly victory!
Trump told his Iowa cult that Lake is “terrific” and she’ll “make a great senator.” Nothing about making a great VP. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt, especially after Lake has debased herself in countless ways to earn the No. 2 job. She seemed to live at Mar-a-Lago more than Melania, apparently in her own suite. Lake championed Trump’s homicidal record as President, defended him against a mountain of lawsuits, spouted the Big Lie whenever her mouth opened, and called him one of 9/11’s heroes.
You too may remember Trump’s heroics, like when he boasted, minutes after the Towers fell, that he now owned the tallest building in downtown Manhattan (wrong, another is taller). Or maybe it was when he said “hundreds of friends” died in the attacks (he couldn’t name one).
I’m drawn to his heroic actions, like when he bragged that he went to Ground Zero a couple days later to help with the cleanup (no, he didn’t). Then the hero related moving personal stories of seeing people jump from the Towers, while he watched “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheer the attacks (neither was true).
At his most heroic, Trump received $150,000 from a fund intended for small businesses, supposedly for his “charitable efforts” after 9/11, which amounted to precisely zero. But what really sets Trump above the firefighters, police officers, and other first responders was his reaction to reporter Serge Kovaleski’s column that questioned Trump’s pattern of using 9/11 to promote himself.
It’s a shame Kari Lake won’t be Trump’s VP choice; they’re so deserving of one another.