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Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appeared caught off guard when questioned about Donald Trump‘s running mate pick JD Vance likening the former president to Adolf Hitler.
On Saturday, the former president was shot in the ear when a gunman turned a Pennsylvania rally into a war zone. Days later, former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis pressed the Arizona Senate candidate about the need for a “new tone in politics.” Lake, who refused to concede her 2022 election loss to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
Maitlis asked Lake whether she believed the “the tone in American politics got out of hand?”
“I think the tone is really disturbing when the media is calling a man like Donald Trump, Hitler. They are comparing him to Hitler,” the Trump loyalist said.
“Like JD Vance did you mean?” the journalist fired back, referring to a resurfaced text message from Trump’s vice presidential pick wondering whether the former president was “America’s Hitler.”
The Arizona Republican stumbled on her words before saying: “Like the media is doing.”
She insisted that Vance probably listened to the media. Lake called Trump a “good man that everybody loved before he ran.” She continued: “Imagine having a smear campaign going on about you for eight years – pretty soon everyone wouldn’t like you.”
People like Vance are realizing “the media was lying and I believed it,” Lake suggested.
When Maitlis asked why Lake pushed election fraud claims, Lake asked whether Maitlis thought Biden “was more popular than Barack Obama” for getting more votes in 2020 than the former president did in his own election victories, adding that you “have to have brain cells” to not believe that.
“I believe the election was run fraudulently,” Lake summarized. “You’re sitting across the pond and you don’t know what’s happening,” she said.
“You were sued for defamation,” the journalist said, referring to a lawsuit brought by Arizona election worker Stephen Richer. She has refused to defend herself in the lawsuit.
Maitlis pressed: “You lied about a top Arizona election official, you defamed him, you falsely accused him of injecting 30,000 illegal votes into machines, intentionally misprinting ballots. Do you stand by those claims?”
“Yes. It happened”, Lake replied. “Emily, I’m in the middle of a lawsuit and I don’t want to talk about it…I feel confident that I’ve spoken the truth.”
Last week President Biden called to “lower the temperature,” prompting Maitlis to ask the election denier: “Do you accept the part you played in inflaming the political rhetoric in this country?”
“You are just part of the fake news and you’re lying. You don’t know a damn thing about Arizona. You don’t know one thing about our election and you sit there with a smirk on your face…” Lake began.
But Maitlis cut in: “What does it say about the Republican party that they need to lie, to intimidate, to threaten because you don’t believe you can win at the ballot box? Why would you need to do that?”
Lake didn’t answer the question and instead insulted the journalist: “You are just a sad case of a human being and I’m so sorry for you. I’m sorry you bought into the propaganda.”
“I’m guessing if you don’t win in November, you won’t concede? That’s the rule that you’re playing by now, is it?” Maitlis asked.
“I actually think you need your head examined,” Lake said.
The Arizona MAGA candidate is running against Rep Ruben Gallego for independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s soon-to-be vacant Senate seat.
