Kari Lake Isn’t Actually Sure Who “Stole the Election”

This is Totally Normal Quote of the Day, a feature highlighting a statement from the news that exemplifies just how extremely normal everything has become.

“I don’t know who exactly stole the election.” —Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake during an interview with local radio station KTAR News

Kari Lake lost her race for Arizona governor to Democrat Katie Hobbs two years ago, and ever since, the Republican firebrand has refused to let up on claims that the election was stolen from her. Somehow she’s so certain that fraud was at play—but, curiously, in an interview this week she revealed that she’s fuzzy on the specifics.

“The elections are run poorly,” explained Lake during an interview with local Arizona radio show Outspoken With Bruce and Gaydos. “I don’t know who exactly stole the election, but there are a lot of people who are running elections poorly, and we’ve seen the results.”

Lake’s fraud claims have been debunked, and she also lost two lawsuits challenging her governor’s race loss. Megan Gilbertson, a Maricopa County elections spokesperson, told USA Today that Lake’s accusations are “textbook disinformation.”

Lake’s strategy since entering the political arena and leaving her TV anchor job has been pretty simple: follow Donald Trump’s lead as closely as possible. The former president lost his election to Joe Biden four years ago but still, to this day, falsely claims that the whole thing was rigged—and Lake has been saying the exact same thing about her loss to Hobbs. This strategy seems to be working for Trump, as he’s dominated the Republican primary field since announcing his candidacy in 2022 and has so far eliminated 11 challengers to the GOP nomination.

Things haven’t gone as well for Lake, who has been trailing Ruben Gallego, her Democratic opponent in Arizona’s Senate race. She’s also running short on cash—according to Politico, Lake’s campaign started the new year with a little over $1 million and $308,000 in debt. And last month, she admitted to secretly recording conversations she had with a slew of Arizona Republicans, including Jeff DeWit, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party. DeWit ended up resigning over a leaked recording of a conversation in which he tried bribing Lake to drop out of the Senate race.

After Lake has built basically her entire political identity around the premise that her 2022 governor’s race was stolen from her, she suddenly admits—while running for a separate elected office, no less—that she has no clue who or what is responsible for said fraud? Interesting.

We can’t help but think back to when Republicans failed to achieve the expected red wave during the 2022 midterm elections, and how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged that Trump-endorsed candidates ended up losing key races for Republicans. At the time, he was hopeful that 2024 would yield better results. “In the next cycle, we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome,” he said.

Perhaps not in Arizona!