Kari Lake is unmasked after her disaster of a Down Under interview

When CBS 5/3TV's Dennis Welch in June asked Kari Lake about her donations to then-presidential candidates John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, her response was to trash the reporter.

“What I see is happening here is I'm running for governor. And rather than doing a story of, ‘Hey, a person who has worked in our industry, had an illustrious career and is running for governor because she cares about this state.’ You're going to do a hit piece or try to be derogatory, which is so typical of where the media goes. If there's a story with a conservative in it, it always has a negative slant and people are onto it, Dennis. They're onto it. And you know you guys do that.”

When 12News’ Brahm Resnik asked Lake, during her August mask protest at ASU, what should be done about a surging pandemic, her response was to trash the reporter.

“I noticed that you did not say the Pledge of Allegiance and that’s really despicable,” she said, though she didn't explain how she noticed such a thing when he was wearing a mask.

Then she bought ad time on the Sunday Square Off show he hosts over the weekend, trashing not just Resnik but all reporters.

"The media isn't just corrupt, they are anti-American," she proclaims on her ad before launching into Resnik.

When 60 Minutes Australia reporter Liam Bartlett recently asked Lake if the Trump supporters who charged the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, should be pardoned, her response was to trash not only the reporter but his entire country.

Are you catching on, Arizona?

Let’s just briefly revisit Lake’s disaster of a Down Under interview, which aired on Sunday evening.

Barlett: “Your man Donald said…”

Lake interrupted: “Why did you say that, sir. ‘Your man Donald’?”

Bartlett: “Well he is. I mean he endorsed you personally. He said a few days ago that those people at the Capitol should be pardoned. They should all be pardoned. Do you think they should be pardoned?”

Lake: “I’m still amazed that you’d say ‘Your man, Donald.’ That’s just so disrespectful.”

Then she launched into your usual spiel attacking not only the media but all of Australia. (I guess she couldn’t really call Bartlett anti-American, after all.)

Cue the detonation: “What I don’t like is that people are being held in prisons without being charged,” Lake said. “That’s unAmerican. Maybe they did away with that stuff in Australia. Perhaps in Australia because you’ve given your rights away, you melted down all your guns and you guys have no freedom, that you find that OK. But here in America, we do things differently. We have something called the U.S. Constitution and we have rights.”

Bartlett: "So we’d be better off having more guns here?”

Lake: “Yeah you would. You absolutely would, sir. You absolutely would. I feel so sorry right now for the people in Australia. Have no power. The thing keeping us right now from being Australia is our Second Amendment and we will never, ever let that go.”

She went on to talk about Australia’s COVID “internment camps” calling them “the most horrifying thing I think I’ve ever seen a government do.”

Australia put people up at luxury hotels and cabins to quarantine for two weeks after flying into the country in 2020 and 2021.

As for all those “melted guns” so lamented by Lake, Australia tightened its gun laws in 1996 after a lone shooter killed 35 people and injured another 23 at a cafe and tourist site in Port Arthur, Tasmania, using military-style weapons he purchased without background checks.

The country banned all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns and now requires a license to possess a gun. Thousands of unlicensed firearms were surrendered under a gun amnesty.

It’s worth noting that Australia has had no mass shootings since 1996. The Australians had had enough.

As it turns out, so had Lake, who abruptly cut off her interview with Bartlett, saying he made the “crazy reporters and people at CNN look almost respectable.”

So did you notice the problem, Arizona?

Lake never answered Bartlett’s question.

Instead, she noted that J6 pardons aren’t an issue for the governor and … wait for it … attacked the reporter.

“I have no say in that,” she told Bartlett. “I’m running for governor. This isn’t something a governor does. You are trying to twist this interview as trying to make me look bad.”

No twisting needed.

Lake didn’t even seem to know that the J6 defendants, as they are called, all have been charged with crimes associated with their storming of the U.S. Capitol.

In fact, as any intern journalist can tell you, no one can be held in an American jail for more than a few days unless he or she has been criminally charged, and even then only if the person poses a flight risk or a danger to others.

It’s worth pointing out that while pardoning J6 insurrectionists isn’t something an Arizona governor would do, it is fair to ask someone who wants the job if she agrees with the former president whose endorsement she touts at every opportunity.

It’s also worth noting that enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws is also not something an Arizona governor does yet Lake has pledged to finish the border wall and arrest and deport asylum seekers as trespassers.

You know what's also worth noting? That it is absolutely the job of journalists to ask tough — and frankly, in this case, not even tough — questions that will help voters get a feel for the candidates who beg to lead them.

For pointing that out, I’ll, no doubt, join the growing growing ranks of scolded journalists who dared to criticize Kari Lake, or even ask a question that might lead one to conclude that when it comes to matters of substance, this particular Lake is a puddle.

It’s plays great, after all, with the Republican base.

With democracy, not so much.

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

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No, Kari Lake, it is not 'unAmerican' for reporters to ask questions