According to most, Kari Lake is getting ready to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in her home state of Arizona. But you wouldn’t know that based on her most recent attacks on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his handling of Covid.
Appearing on the PBD Podcast, Lake, an ardent defender of former President Donald Trump, and someone who spent much of 2023 pursuing the Vice President spot on a future Trump ticket, tore into DeSantis, claiming that “DeSantis took a page out of Gavin Newsome’s playbook. Despite what he says he shut the beaches down, he did force vaccines, he did force facemasks on our kids…” and later claiming that “DeSantis was for all that.”
The host of the podcast tried to correct Lake, but the real push back came in the hours that followed, as social media circulated the posts to promote Lake’s attacks on DeSantis and ended up generating a massive backlash featuring thousands of tweets highlighting Kari Lake’s non-stop praise for DeSantis and how he handled the Covid crisis, as well correcting the record to show it was largely the Trump administration that was forcing vaccines and mandates on the American people while Governors like DeSantis were fighting to protect their residents from the federal approach.
Kari Lake the shameless pathological liar and grifter goes on the @PBDsPodcast and says that Ron DeSantis forced masks on children and forced people to get vaccinated. Compares him to Gavin Newsom. pic.twitter.com/GQvJdTWzzo
— Unfiltered☢Boss (@Unfilteredboss1) September 26, 2023
“Kari Lake the shameless pathological liar and grifter goes on the @PBDsPodcast and says that Ron DeSantis forced masks on children and forced people to get vaccinated. Compares him to Gavin Newsom.” – @Unfilteredboss1
Disgusting, shameless, backstabbing liar.@patrickbetdavid pic.twitter.com/jNo76D3C1L
— Max-a-Lago X (@MaxNordau) September 26, 2023
Disgusting, shameless, backstabbing liar. – Max-a-Lago X @MaxNordau
Sick to think that I once supported @KariLake. This woman is a lying sociopath.
In 2022 when she was running for governor, she said, "Someone said, 'Kari, you're going to be the DeSantis of the West.' Honestly, other than being called 'Trump in a dress,' that is the greatest… https://t.co/aAubX65Tvy
— Chris 209 🇺🇸 (@Chris_Opines) September 26, 2023
Sick to think that I once supported @KariLake. This woman is a lying sociopath.
In 2022 when she was running for governor, she said, “Someone said, ‘Kari, you’re going to be the DeSantis of the West.’ Honestly, other than being called ‘Trump in a dress,’ that is the greatest compliment you could pay me.” – @Chris_Opines
By afternoon, Lake attempted a pivot to deflect the damage being done, tweeting:
“We could spend decades blaming each other for the Covid response. We probably will.
I just don’t think that’s the most productive use of our time.
I think our most immediate concern should be prosecuting Anthony Fauci.
Can we agree on that?”
Error! Filename not specified.
Readers were clearly not ready to move on from the events of the day. Conservative commentator and staunch Trump defender Ian Miles Cheong blasted Lake, tweeting that “Kari Lake is now telling everyone that people should stop pointing fingers at each other over how Covid was handled and focus on “prosecuting Fauci.” She’s saying this right after she blasted Ron DeSantis with a bunch of lies about how he handled it and got immediate pushback over it from numerous conservatives, including many Trump supporters. This woman is a pathological liar and cannot help herself. Trump would be better off without her.”
Comments on the Lake tweet were so negative that approximately one hour after the tweet was posted, it was deleted along with the responses.
“Mark Lamb is having a very good day today,” quipped one GOP observer, referring to the Pinal County Sheriff and current Republican front-runner in the Senate race.
Lake has been teasing her run for U.S. Senate for a while now, even while her legal challenges to the results of the 2022 race for Governor continue. If she secures the nomination, she could find herself in an unusual three-way race with Independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego. The presence of a high-profile independent in the race would make keeping the partisan Republican vote united a very high priority for Lake, which made some strategists shake their heads at the day’s events.
“Lake’s strategy of burning it all down for #Trump only makes sense if the play is the VP spot or a cabinet post.” tweeted GOP conservative Constantin Querard, “It makes no sense if you intend to run for statewide office & need a united party behind you to have a real shot at winning. Someone on Team Lake must understand this.”