Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake Backs Trump’s Dangerous Lies During Rally

In Kari Lake’s Arizona, everyone and everything is a threat.

The Republican candidate for governor shared her apocalyptic vision of Arizona during a speech on Saturday, stoking fears that the state would collapse unless she’s elected this November. She also advocated for violence against non-conservatives, imprisoning the US government’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, along with any election officials who were involved with the 2020 election.

“There’s a few people I’d like to send right down to the prison in Florence,” Lake said. “Anybody who was involved in that corrupt, shady, shoddy election of 2020. Lock them up.”

Lake appeared at a rally held by former President Donald Trump in Florence, where he once again lied about the outcome of the 2020 election results and spewed conspiracy theories about how he didn’t really lose to Joe Biden in Arizona—he did, even the Republican-backed audit said so.

In addition to the partisan audit of the election results, Maricopa County’s official vote count was conducted in front of bipartisan observers, as were legally required audits meant to ensure voting machines work properly. A partial hand-count spot check found a perfect match.

Two extra post-election reviews by federally certified election experts also found no evidence that voting machines switched votes or were connected to the internet. The county Board of Supervisors commissioned the extraordinary reviews in an effort to prove to Trump backers that there were no problems.

Trump did, however, reiterate his endorsement for Lake, a former longtime TV anchor who: wants her political opponents locked up; wants to spy on teachers in the classroom; claimed it’s “child abuse” to make children wear masks during a deadly pandemic; has virtually no plans to help Arizona families; and has hugged Trump so tightly that it’s hard to tell where Trump ends and Lake begins. 

Meanwhile, Lake’s likely opponent this fall Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has a litany of concrete plans directed at helping Arizona: she wants to invest in small businesses and cut red tape, expedite repairs to school buildings, prioritize training students for good-paying STEM jobs, eliminate the tampon tax, award state contracts to Arizona businesses, and order a review to eliminate wasteful spending in the state.

Other prominent Republicans in the race to replace incumbent Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who is term-limited, include ex-Congressman Matt Salmon, former television news anchor Kari Lake, developer Karrin Taylor Robson, and businessman Steve Gaynor. State Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced Saturday she is dropping out of Arizona’s crowded race for the Republican nomination for governor and will instead run for re-election to her current position.

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