OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk made headlines when he responded to a tweet from Arizona Republican Kari Lake.
Lake, an Arizona gubernatorial candidate who lost her 2022 midterm election race, fired off a tweet asking Musk why it appeared that users were not able to retweet, like, or comment on a post that included a link to an article about her recently filed 70-page lawsuit against Maricopa County.
“Is Twitter still suppressing election criticism & news? Notice how the ReTweet/Comment/Like features are disabled on the tweet about my Election Lawsuit? @elonmusk what’s up with this??” Lake tweeted.
Is Twitter still suppressing election criticism & news?
Notice how the ReTweet/Comment/Like features are disabled on the tweet about my Election Lawsuit?@elonmusk what’s up with this?? pic.twitter.com/UfaE0EKhfH
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 11, 2022
Musk, who has proven he’s accessible and willing to discuss issues with Twitter users, responded to Lake by explaining his thoughts on the situation.
“Reasonable criticism of elections and judicial challenges are, of course, lawful. That seems to be the case here. Clear incitement to violence will result in suspension and significant deception should result in a @CommunityNotes correction,” Musk tweeted.
Reasonable criticism of elections and judicial challenges are, of course, lawful. That seems to be the case here.
Clear incitement to violence will result in suspension and significant deception should result in a @CommunityNotes correction.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022
Lake has filed a legal challenge to the outcome of her gubernatorial race with Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
Lake believes she has an “exceptional” lawsuit and that she’s willing to “take it all the way to the Supreme Court” if necessary.
Hobbs certified her own win over Lake last week with outgoing Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel as witnesses.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Real America’s Voice “War Room” host Steve Bannon.
“We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting,” she continued.
Earlier this month, Lake’s campaign issued a blistering response after being rebuked by a federal judge appointed by then-President Barack Obama, who also imposed a fine after filing an election-related lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi of the District of Arizona rejected a Lake lawsuit earlier this year and then moved to fine her attorneys and those of Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem last week.
“Imposing sanctions, in this case, is not to ignore the importance of putting in place procedures to ensure that our elections are secure and reliable,” Tuchi wrote in his order. “It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward this end and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process.
“It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future,” Tuchi’s order noted further.
That led to a fiery response from Lake’s legal team, which accused him of acting in a politically motivated manner while disputing his conclusions.
Late last month, Lake’s team filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County election officials seeking records pertaining to the recently concluded election.
The lawsuit states:
Plaintiff desires that every lawful vote is properly counted and that every voter who was eligible to vote is allowed to vote. Unfortunately, due to the Defendants’ failures, many eligible voters may not have been able to vote. Because Defendants were unable or unwilling to conduct a reconciliation of voter check-ins against ballots cast of each polling center on election night in accordance with Arizona law and have now unlawfully refused to produce public records in response to two public records requests regarding how they administered the election, Plaintiff cannot determine that every lawful vote will be properly counted. The records Plaintiff requested in response to the numerous issues with Defendants’administration of the election are consistent with a parallel demand by the Arizona Attorney General for answers to questions about the Defendants’ actions.
The suit named Stephen Richer, who is the Maricopa County recorder, and other officials and was filed in Arizona Superior Court. The suit seeks prompt release of certain information regarding how the elections were administered, “which featured widespread issues in the state’s largest county,” the Epoch Times reported.
