CNN responded with the full video of Kari Lake’s appearance on the network’s State of the Union programme after she claimed that her mic was muted.
“For some reason, @CNN turned-down my audio on several occasions as I was speaking,” the GOP Arizona gubernatorial nominee tweeted on Sunday.
“Thankfully, I was recording the audio separately. This version allows you to fully hear my answers,” she added, linking to a page on the conservative video site Rumble.
CNN’s communications team responded to the former local news anchor later that night.
“Hi Ms Lake. Here is your full live interview on CNN. As you can see, there were no audio issues. Thank you for joining us this morning,” CNN PR tweeted in response, including a link to the full interview on cnn.com.
State of the Union host Dana Bash asked Ms Lake on several occasions if she would accept the results of the election in November when she’s set to face off against the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
Ms Lake responded to CNN’s questioning about the results by attacking Ms Hobbs before saying, “I’m going to win the election and I will accept that result”.
“If you lose, will you accept that?” Ms Bash asked.
“I’m going to win the election and accept that result,” Ms Lake said again. “The people will never support and vote for a coward like Katie Hobbs.”
Ms Lake appeared on CNN via Skype and while there did seem to be some issues with the audio, Mediaite noted that the same problems could be spotted in the version posted on Rumble. Both Ms Bash and Ms Lake could be heard clearly.
Following the interview, media reaction zeroed in on Ms Lake’s refusal to say that she would accept the results if she were to loose, with her comments being juxtaposed with former President Donald Trump’s comments leading up to the 2020 election.
Much like the former president, Ms Lake has refused to accept that he lost in 2020.
Left-leaning political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted that “Kari Lake is a continuation of Donald Trump. This is our warning”.
“We cannot let Kari Lake anywhere near the levers of power,” he added.
On Sunday, Ms Lake asked Ms Bash “you want to have me on here and talk 2020 election, and you’re the one who accuses me of constantly talking about it?”
“I would never bring this up, ever, had you not been bringing this up, consistently, on the campaign trail,” Ms Bash replied.
