OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake crushed CNN, her opponent Katie Hobbs and the entire Democrat Party in a vicious smackdown.
It happened during an interview with Dana Bash on CNN where her opponent was also a guest, but they had separate speaking segments as Hobbs continues to refuse to debate the Republican.
Bash challenged Lake on whether or not she would accept the results of the election in November and the Republican nailed the answer.
“I’m gonna win the election and I will accept that result because the people of Arizona will never support and vote for a coward like Katie Hobbs,” she said. “She’s single handedly destroying a 20 year tradition of gubernatorial debates because of her cowardice.”
Kari Lake: "I am going to win the election, and I will accept that result." pic.twitter.com/OX5pFgYfEy
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 16, 2022
The host accused Lake of being an election denier but was hit between the eyes with some hard facts about the Democrats and her own network.
“In 2016, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Hillary Clinton. Everybody on the Democrat side said the election had problems,” she said before Bash said that Al Gore and Hillary Clinton had conceded their elections. But Lake had one more for her that she could not answer.
“In 2018 Stacey Abrams never conceded. She still hasn’t. I don’t hear CNN calling her an election denier,” she said.
Kari Lake points out the times Democrats questioned election results:
"In 2018 Stacey Abrams never conceded. She still hasn't. I don't hear CNN calling her an election denier." pic.twitter.com/tarv3Np4uv
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 16, 2022
The host went on the ask Lake if she thought that some asylum seekers deserved to stay in the United States, but the Republican was not going to play her game.
“We’ve had five million people come in, and we’ve had a million of them called ‘gotaways.’ That means we’re not even processing them — they want to avoid capture because they have criminal records. “We need to vet people coming into our country,” she said.
.@KariLake: "We've had five million people come in, and we've had a million of them called 'gotaways.' That means we're not even processing them — they want to avoid capture because they have criminal records.
"We need to vet people coming into our country." pic.twitter.com/oW5JNDOoJo
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 16, 2022
Lake, is becoming a major threat for the Democrat Party.
And they are not simply concerned about her in the state of Arizona. Top Democrat strategists perceive her as a nationwide threat, Axios reported.
“That’s what’s changed a lot in our politics. There’s a performance aspect to it in both parties,” former top Obama strategist David Plouffe said.
“Obama and Trump accelerated that change in many respects, which is that you don’t have to sit around for 20 years building your case,” he said.
Another former advisor to former President Obama had similar thoughts.
“If you get a candidate who has the performance skills of a major market local TV anchor and the philosophy and thinking of Steve Bannon, that’s a potent and dangerous combination … Look at Italy,” David Axelrod said.
And former Hillary Clinton adviser Karen Finney said Lake is “a more polished version” of MAGA.
“I’m sure a big part of why Trump likes her is that TV experience,” she said. “In the same way he understood how to use media and avoid questions that he didn’t want to answer, she certainly has that.”
Last week Lake responded with fire and fury to a speech by outgoing GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who implored residents of The Grand Canyon State not to support the former Phoenix-area newscaster and a favorite of former President Donald Trump.
Lake directed her comments to Cheney, who was handily defeated in an August primary by another GOP candidate backed by Trump, lawyer Harriet Hageman, after the Wyoming Republican gave a speech at the Arizona State University (ASU) campus Wednesday where she said residents should support Lake’s Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
“I don’t know that I have ever voted for a Democrat, but if I lived in Arizona now, I absolutely would … for governor and for secretary of state,” said Cheney, who added that any resident who “cares about democracy” and the “survival of our republic” should not vote for anyone who refuses to honor the outcome of an election.
Cheney’s remarks led to a scathing response from Lake’s communications director, Ross Trumble. “Liz Cheney is confused. Auditions for CNN contributors are being held in Washington, not in Arizona. No one here cares what she has to say.”
Lake and Cheney have traded barbs in the recent past. During remarks at the Texas Tribune Festival last month, Cheney said she would do “whatever it takes” to ensure Lake never takes office, even pledging to promote Democrat candidates to keep “too pro-Trump” Republicans out of office.
During an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” in late September, Lake told host Maria Bartiromo that “the people of Wyoming can’t stand” Cheney and she was sure “the people of Arizona don’t like Liz Cheney,” either.
“That might be the biggest, best gift I have ever received,” Lake said of Cheney’s comments. “The Republican Party, the new Republican Party, is the party of we, the people. It is no longer the party of warmongers.”
.@KariLake: "We just had the largest drug bust in the history of drug busts in Phoenix, Arizona this week. A million fentanyl pills. This is a poisoning of America. I don't even call them drug overdoses. Because one pill. One half a pill can kill you." pic.twitter.com/YX18gtca03
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) September 26, 2022
“Liz Cheney probably should change her voter registration. Turns out she really is a Democrat after all,” the GOP candidate added.
