Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is teasing a Senate run. But a possible return to the campaign trail hasn’t stopped her from appearing on far-right web shows, where she voices support for wild claims.
Lake, a Republican, has refused to concede her 2022 loss, even after a court rejected her election fraud claims. She’s also spent recent weeks hinting at a Senate campaign—and while Republican leaders have voiced skepticism about her potential campaign, Lake has found a friendlier audience on right-wing web shows, where she has recently nodded along to justifications for potential right-wing violence.
On Tuesday, Lake gave an interview to Stew Peters, a conspiracy theorist who made a documentary claiming that COVID-19 vaccines secretly use snake venom that will give people Satanic DNA.
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During the interview, Peters pandered to Lake’s claims of voter fraud and lamented that “We’ve exhausted all political options. We’ve tried voting harder, voting better.”
“Getting involved,” Lake offered.
“Getting involved, yeah, we’ve tried writing, we’ve tried emailing, we’ve tried calling, we’ve tried peaceful protesting,” Peters said. “We’ve tried all of these things and I’m just saying, look, we have been the party of people, we have been the group of conservative Christians who have avoided violence or bloodshed at all costs. We have really come to the table with everything that we can. It just seems to be falling on deaf ears. I just don’t know how long a dog can be poked before it comes out of the corner and starts biting.”
“Bites, right,” Lake said.
Peters went on, describing “Critical Race Theory” and transgender people as threats to children.
“I agree,” Lake said. “I don't know how much longer the people can take it. We have done everything right.”
Lake’s press office did not return a request for comment on whether Lake was condoning violence by people who cannot “take it” anymore.
The interview was among multiple recent appearances by Lake on fringe talk shows, Right Wing Watch reported. Lake also appeared this week on a web show hosted by Pete Santilli who, the previous day, used the show to falsely accuse Pfizer of putting snake venom in vaccines. “Pfizer is just a manufacturing plant for Satan,” Santilli said on the show the day before Lake appeared, urging listeners to “Destroy Pfizer now! Do it now! Do it now! Go over the wall. Get into their frickin' buildings. Unplug all their frickin' equipment. Let’s go. It’s time to storm the Bastille, is it not?”
During Lake’s appearance the following day, Santilli repeatedly claimed Trump’s 2020 election loss was the result of a “CIA coup,” to which Santilli proposed a “counter-coup through the system.”
“I’m saying we’ve got a CIA coup, let’s not have a bake sale in response,” he said.
“What you’re saying, I’m absolutely sure, is probably true,” Lake responded. “I haven’t looked at all that evidence, but nothing would shock me anymore.”
In several recent interviews, including with Peters, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, and The New York Times, Lake has hinted at running for the Senate in Arizona.
“There’s a Senate race that’s coming up here and it started getting out that that might be something I would consider running for,” Lake told Peters, days after telling the Times outright that she was considering the bid. “And now they’re in an ultra-panic because they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, we thought we got rid of her,’ and I just want them to know you’ll never get rid of me.”
On the contrary, Republican leaders and strategists in the Senate and in Arizona recently told Politico that they feared Lake’s latest candidacy would also fail.
“Any candidate in ’24 that has, as their principal campaign theme, a stolen election, is probably going to have the same issues that some of the ’22 candidates had,” Republican Sen. John Thune told Politico of a potential Lake bid. “I just don’t think that’s where the American public is. It’s a swing state—we need to have a good Republican nominee, obviously. You know, whoever gets in, I hope they focus on the future, not the past.”
