Why Meghan McCain Tweeted Kari Lake is a hag, sideshow freak and lunatic: 'I have HAD IT'

Now this is a Twitter war worth watching — for lowbrow reasons, sure, but worth it still.

In her combative, if so far brief, political career Kari Lake, the former TV news anchor who is now a Republican candidate for Arizona governor, has copied the Donald Trump playbook, right down to her use of Twitter as a kind of social media battering ram. You get the idea, she would tweet anything to get attention, which she has. And to get elected, she might.

Enter Meghan McCain.

McCain is no stranger to, ahem, colorful, outspoken takes on Twitter herself. And Wednesday she went after Lake with a vengeance, calling her an “absolute sideshow freak” and a lunatic among other things in a series of tweets.

It was wild. And so Arizona.

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Why did McCain go after Lake?

This all started, seemingly, when Wendy Rogers — an Arizona state senator who has been censured by her colleagues after making violent and discriminatory comments, just to provide a little context here — tweeted that Lake should start using the term “Maverick.” This, of course, was the nickname often applied to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, Meghan McCain’s father.

No stranger to Twitter trolling, Rogers tagged McCain. Of course, she did.

Lake responded that she would “hate to hurt Meg’s feelings.” She went on to say someone called her “MAGA QUEEN” and “while I love that, it probably belongs to Melania!” Super weird, yes, but certainly on-brand.

Anyway, you tag McCain, she’s going to notice. And respond. So she did, writing: “You hags deserve each other.” Also: “Well this is the kind of hard hitting politics everyone expects from you and Kari… Both of you dried up qanon husks stay the hell away from me.”

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Lake turned the tweet into a fundraising opportunity

Lake then tweeted screenshots of McCain’s “hags” tweet and another asking why, if Lake hates John McCain so much, “did the (expletive) steal my dads nickname?”

She also tweeted, "First you call me a (expletive), now you call me a hag? You’re really doing wonders for your family’s image, Meg." She then made fun of McCain's book sales while offering a link to buy it on Amazon.

Lake, not surprisingly, turned it all into a fundraising opportunity, with the usual bombast and hyperbole her campaign has employed throughout. She called McCain out for name-calling, then said, “All the while, a @HillaryClinton Super PAC launches MILLIONS against @KariLake. Make sense yet? The Establishment on BOTH SIDES is terrified.”

Interesting theory.

That’s when McCain tweeted, “Yeah and I’d do it again — you absolute sideshow freak. Wanna keep going?”

Later she tweeted, “I will call you anything I want — keep talking about my dead father, lunatic. I have HAD IT.”

Apparently, she has. Lake, too. For now, at least, there have been no further tweets. But it was fun while it lasted.

Lake has a history with the McCains

There’s a history here. Lake has repeatedly attacked John McCain, whose family has said they considered Lake a close friend and feel betrayed by her reversal.

And who else has attacked McCain, you ask? Trump, of course. Lake followed suit.

If you’re out there blushing when someone calls you “MAGA QUEEN” it’s not a surprise that you are going to parrot tacky attacks on someone who, for the record, died in 2018. Lake is betting the political farm on taking Trump tactics (he will travel to Arizona Saturday for a rally to support Lake and senate candidate Blake Masters).

How it plays in the primary and, if she wins that, the general election will be interesting to follow.

It’s tempting to say that social media trolling doesn’t elevate the conversation when it comes to choosing a governor, but Trump, and others, lowered that bar a while ago.

Like so much else in politics right now, Twitter is increasingly used not to promote a message or explain a policy. It’s too often a cesspool of name-calling, fringe conspiracy theories and ugly behavior.

Mind you, McCain isn’t a high-minded hero in all this; her tweets aren’t always the model of civil discourse, as she would probably be the first to acknowledge. But in this case, it was kind of nice to see someone fighting back.

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Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Meghan McCain and candidate for AZ governor Kari Lake fight on Twitter