The 'good' reason Kari Lake keeps spreading lies about the 2020 election

Dana Bash of CNN’s “State of the Union” knew the answer on Sunday when she asked Kari Lake why Lake keeps lying about the results of the 2020 election.

Bash also knew that Lake knew the answer. And Lake knew that Bash knew. And, I’d guess, everyone watching knew.

Still, the question went unanswered.

Which is nothing new.

A Trump sycophant like Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor, wouldn’t dare risk being honest about her reason for lying.

But we can.

It all comes back to Donald Trump

It’s this simple:

Lake spreads lies about election fraud because Trump spreads lies about election fraud, and because Trump voters believe lies about election fraud and would not vote for Lake if she dared to tell the truth.

This is what homage to Trump requires. It’s the price a GOP candidate must pay.

Lying about lies.

Another view: Katie Hobbs bent the truth on CNN, and she knows it

So, Bash got no good answer when she asked Lake, “You called the 2020 election corrupt, stolen, rotten and rigged, and there was no evidence of any of that presented in a court of law or anywhere else that any of those things are true. So, why do you keep saying that?”

Lake instead claimed there was “plenty of evidence” of election fraud.

No.

There isn’t.

Even the Cyber Ninjas know it's a lie

Lake knows this.

She and the election-denying, insurrection-supporting Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to require hand-counting only for ballots in this November’s election – without providing proof that the system had been compromised.

A judge tossed the case, essentially labeling it a joke.

Lake and Finchem appealed.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, dominated by Republicans, has asked that Lake, Finchem and their attorneys face financial sanctions.

The county’s attorneys, in court papers, said in part that Lake’s and Finchem’s “use of the Court to further a disinformation campaign and false narrative concerning the integrity of the election process in Arizona by asserting demonstrably false allegations is repugnant.”

And it is.

It is also required of those in fealty to Trump.

Spreading the manure of '2000 Mules'

Lake knows that the taxpayer-funded hand recount conducted by the Cyber Ninjas, a group specifically selected by Republican Arizona Senate President Karen Fann with the expectation of finding fraud, instead found that President Joe Biden’s margin of victory was even larger than the official count.

She knows that not a shred of viable evidence has been presented in any of the court cases claiming widespread election fraud.

She knows there has been no hacking of vote-counting machines, because the vote-counting machines in Maricopa County are not connected to the internet.

Lake, like other Republican candidates, has spread debunked claims about election fraud in the looney conspiracy-based documentary “2000 Mules.”

She knows as well that Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich – another Republican – has asked federal authorities to investigate the finances of the people behind the film. Brnovich’s office had been told by the film’s producers that evidence of fraud would be handed over, but none has been received.

A 'good' election strategy for Kari Lake?

Perhaps because … There. Is. None.

Now Lake, like Trump before her, will only commit to honoring the results of the upcoming election if she wins.

Again, it is what she needs to say in order to please dear leader Trump and Trump voters.

There are those who would tell you that completely kowtowing to Trump, spreading baseless claims and pushing conspiracy theories is a good election strategy.

It is a strategy, for sure.

But to call it “good” is a lie.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake has 'good' reason to spread lies about the 2020 election