On Oct. 18, Republican Arizona Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake took reporters to task after critics and legacy media referred to her as an "election denier."
Lake took questions from reporters on the ninth stop of her "Ask Me Anything Tour" with Black Voices for Kari in Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday night. MAAP Real Talk Show’s George Nemeh asked the Gubernatorial candidate about critics referring to her as an "election denier" regarding her previous comments surrounding the 2020 Presidential election.
"I'm actually shocked you asked that question, George," Lake replied before asking for an off-camera person named Anthony. The Gubernatorial candidate asked Anthony, who produced a folder filled with paperwork, if he was a was a journalist. The off-screen Anthony replied he was not a journalist before Lake rebutted, "Well, you did better research than half of these people," motioning towards the reporters.
"Let's talk about election deniers," said Lake, who began reading off headlines and tweets including the RNC's "150 Examples of Democrats Denying Election Results." Lake continued citing President Biden's Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's 2020 tweet declaring Republican Governor Brian Kemp "stole" the election from Democratic challenger Stacy Abrams along with a separate 2019 tweet from the Press Secretary. The Gubernatorial candidate also cited The Washington Post's 2019 article, "Hillary Clinton: Trump is an ‘illegitimate president,’" and the Los Angeles Times' 2018 column piece "was the 2016 election legitimate? It's now definitely worth asking the question."
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"So it's okay for Democrats to question elections but it's not okay for Republicans?" Lake asked the reporters. "It's a crock of BS. Every one of you knows it. We have our freedom of speech, and we're not going to relinquish it to a bunch of fake news propagandists."
Lake said if reporters were interested in a copy of the headlines and tweets used as examples, the off-screen Anthony could "help [them] learn how to be journalists."
"Look it up, it's been happening a long time. Since 2000 people have questioned the legitimacy of our elections," Lake continued. "All we're asking is that in the future we don't have that have to happen anymore."
"When I'm Governor we're gonna make sure we have honest elections. We want the Democrats and the Independents and the Republicans to all know that their vote counted. We want fair, honest, and transparent elections and we're going to deliver that for the people."
The Gubernatorial candidate flipped through the pages once more, referencing a previous 2002 article from Newsweek discussing former Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggesting former Republican President George W. Bush was "selected" President rather than elected.
"If you're gonna start throwing around terms like 'election denier' let's remember who the other election deniers were — Hillary Clinton and all the Democrats."
Lake is running against Democratic challenger and current Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the Gubernatorial Midterm election this November.
