Kari Lake has formed a 'Jewish Voices' coalition? You can't make this stuff up

Fresh off of endorsing – but never quite getting around to publicly renouncing – a gay bashing antisemite who believes that Jews are evidence that “evil exists”, Kari Lake has announced her “Jewish Voices for Kari” coalition.

I’m guessing that’s a coalition that could hold its meetings in a broom closet.

“The coalition, which will be chaired by Adam Kwasman, will be rolling out ads in both the Phoenix Jewish News and the Arizona Jewish Post thanking Kari Lake for her support,” the campaign announced.

Rather than thanking Lake for her support, perhaps Lake could use those ads to explain herself and even apologize to the Jewish community. To at long last publicly renounce her comments about Jarrin Jackson, the Oklahoma legislative candidate she heartily endorsed but never quite got around to publicly repudiating once she learned who he really was.

Jarrin Jackson railed against Jews

Jackson is a particularly odious character, a born-again bigot who spews garbage across the internet. He’s written that being gay is “a gateway to pedophilia”, that Jews want to take over the world and that global elites want to erase white people “because of their Christianity.”

“All Jews will go to hell if they don’t believe the gospel of Jesus Christ … just like everybody else,” he wrote in a January post to Telegram.

After backlash: Lake changes course on controversial endorsement

Yet Lake endorsed him last month, calling him “an America First patriot” who “does so much to advance our America First movement.”

When told a few days later of Jackson’s social media sewage, she had this to say to Axios’ Jeremy Duda.

“If his reported comments are true, I obviously rescind my endorsement.”

But she never really did. Her campaign spokesman assured me a few days later that the above statement amounted to her withdrawing her support.

That's not exactly a full-throated condemnation of the garbage that spills from the mouth of this Oklahoma "patriot".

Why hasn't Kari Lake made her views clear?

It's puzzling. I’ve never seen Lake shy away from denouncing those things of which she disapproves. She regularly jumps into her home TV studio to rail about whatever she sees as the injustices of the world.

Yet there was only silence from Lake after she presumably did some research on this trash heap of a human being.

Her endorsement – along with endorsements from state Sen. Wendy Rogers and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem – remained on Jackson’s website through Oklahoma’s primary election, which, thankfully, he lost.

Now comes Kari, courting the Jewish vote.

“It’s an honor for our campaign to be supported by so many great leaders in Arizona’s Jewish community,” she said, in a statement announcing her “Jewish Voices” coalition.

Kwasman, the former state legislator and 2014 congressional candidate who is chairing the coalition,  criticized journalists whose eyebrows broke through their hairline on this one.

"@KariLake is a friend to and will be a champion of the Jewish people in Arizona and across the country. Full stop," he tweeted, replying to a tweet by 12News' Brahm Resnik. "Ignore the panicked scare of those in the media attempting to paint any different picture. They will do anything to help radical leftist, Katie Hobbs."

Resnik, by the way, is Jewish. His father fought against the Nazis in the Jewish underground.

Me? I'm not Jewish but my dad fought against the Nazis, too, and I'm pretty sure he'd be flummoxed by Lake's silence.

Still, I  can’t say it any better than the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, who had this to say upon learning about Lake's "Jewish Voices' coalition:

“We have a word for this: chutzpah! We're still waiting for @KariLake to denounce herself Jackson’s antisemitic words. Her endorsement is still on Jackson’s website. She may not control what he does but she can & should resolve any doubt as 2 where she stands on his hate-filled views.”

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake has a 'Jewish Voices' coalition after that endorsement?