Welcome to what is the 1147th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’re profiling Kari Lake, a 2022 candidate to be the next Governor of Arizona, a former local Fox News anchor whose name recognition made her an early favorite in the race, but who is hampered by being a raving loon who would not have a prayer of even sniffing a party nomination, let alone potentially winning the race.
Lake’s road to winning the GOP Primary hit a snag when her opponents realized that in 2006, she switched her party affiliation to “Democrat”, a fact which Lake attributes to having been frustrated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After voting for Barack Obama in 2008, in 2012, Lake again switched party affiliation back to Republican, and over the decade since, has fallen farther and farther away from reality, falling prey to most of the conspiracy theories anyone with basic critical thinking skills could decipher and reject. That fact began to cause concern for any journalists who actually worked with her, as she went down an ugly rabbit hole farther and farther. In 2018, during the “Red for Ed” teacher’s strike in Arizona, Lake began spreading a bizarre lie that the strike was a secret end-around by people trying to get pot legalized in Arizona.
That… that doesn’t make any sense, of course, and it earned her a one month suspension from appearing on air. In 2019, she was caught on a hot mic discussing her own Parler account with colleagues, which, again, that’s a big concern that someone trusted to deliver the news to the public is chilling out on a corner of the internet populated by white nationalists and Neo-Nazis. In April of 2020, she was at it again, sharing Covid-19 misinformation on her personal social media accounts, unaware or unable to care that her actions could get someone killed.
In June 2021, she announced her gubernatorial campaign, immediately appearing at CPAC, and campaigning at events with a Blue Lives Matter flag on display, and continuing to sow chaos, including leading an anti-mask rally at Arizona State University, boasting that she was taking hydroxychloroquine to avoid getting Covid-19 (which doesn’t work). promising to continue to “build the wall” along the U.S./Mexico border like Donald Trump failed to complete during his presidency, fear-monger about an “INVASION” on the southern border, and attack a local journalist for “refusing to recite the pledge of Allegiance” (said journalist is a Canadian who emigrated to the U.S.).
By the end of the year, she was speaking in front of white nationalists at a gathering in Phoenix, were she deried “John McCain Republicans” and told them to “get the hell out” of the GOP.
Clearly, run of the mill rhetoric.
While Kari Lake pushed herself to the fore of the primary by being the worst example of a human that she could be, there was one controversy that nearly cost her the nomination, and that would have been when she started railing against drag queens for “grooming” children. After a post she made on Twitter about “God having been taken out of our schools” and “letting the drag queens in”, part of Lake’s past in her personal life came back to haunt her in the form of Richard Stevens, aka local Phoenix drag queen Barbara Seville. Not only did Stevens/Seville provide several photos of Lake partying with him and other members of the Phoenix drag scene and point out Lake’s sheer hypocrisy for demonizing people whom she once craved the company of, she’d allegedly be kicked out by bouncers for being too drunk, and that at one point, Lake was so concerned about what drag queens might do around children that she hosted a baby shower where the entertainment for the women and children present was… drag queens.
Seems like either Lake was pretending to not be a terrible person then, or she’s pretending to be a terrible person now. Which, the latter kind of just makes you a terrible person.
At the GOP primary debate, Lake also furthered some of the “Big Lie” moments she’d pushed, officially stating that if she had a vote in the matter, she would not have certified the vote for the 2020 election. If supporting the conspiracy theory that the election was “stolen” from Donald Trump wasn’t enough, only days before the primary election, she went on a Qanon promoting broadcast to ask for donations. Oh, and she’s a fan of seditionists, claiming those arrested for attacking the Capitol on January 6th are “being held in prison without being charged”.
Every time she speaks, it’s terrifying how out of touch she is. She can casually just state “women aren’t equal to men”, and that’s a pretty big deal when she’s also talking about abortion and saying it is “the ultimate sin”.
Because we all know, the morality police should be someone so hypocritical about so many things, and who can say that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump exude “BDE”. But that’s the sort of good judgment she has for other Republicans, like Jarrin Jackson, the Oklahoma State Senate candidate and open anti-Semite she unnecessarily supported in August, as well.
While we would like to think everything we’ve written here would mean Kari Lake wouldn’t have a chance of getting elected, we’re talking about Arizona, the same state that elected Republicans as corrupt as Gov. Evan Mecham and Fife Symington, and extremists as virulent of late as Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey. Virtually nothing is disqualifying to Republicans in this state.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, the choice seems not just safe, but extremely competent, and willing to fight for democracy, rather than cave to authoritarian lunacy, especially given the nominee is Katie Hobbs, who had to protect Arizona’s voters from all the bulls*** that Republicans pulled after Arizona got called for Joe Biden in 2020. This state hasn’t had a Democrat in office since Janet Napolitano left to run the Department of Homeland Security in 2009, and it has been a ROUGH 14 years for the Grand Canyon State. While Hobbs could be a healthy change, electing Kari Lake and her authoritarian, white nationalist ideals could be a damaging choice that would make John McCain turn over in his grave, assuming that Lake doesn’t order him dug up and dumped in the ocean.
We’re only mostly kidding, she might go mad with power and do that. Or, y’know, fight her own “Big Lie” fight within the state for years to come and fundraise off of refusing to accept she lost a fair election, which she’s already telegraphing by refusing to accept the result if she loses. Will Arizona Republicans continue to come out in droves to support authoritarian racist ***holes?
We’ll find out in a few weeks’ time. (PLEASE, Vote for Katie Hobbs, Arizonans. PLEASE.)
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