Kari Lake warns of bigger ‘cheating machine’ to block Trump and her in 2024.
Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate
Kari Lake was in a “very dark place” after her surprise loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs last November after leading by as much as 11 points in preelection polling.
She has fought the results showing her losing by 17,117 votes in a state where there have been reports of electioneering irregularities. Lake says she was robbed. Others aren’t so sure. For More Information….
Either way, she told Secrets on Tuesday, running again wasn’t her first choice. “Trust me, that’s not something I was really jonesing to do,” Lake said, just back from a pre-book tour vacation and fishing trip to the Bahamas.
But that was before she was offered big bucks to stay out of the 2024 Arizona Senate race, officials went after her legal team still litigating 2022, and her political mentor, former President Donald Trump, wrote a foreword in her new book, Unafraid: Just Getting Started, that encouraged her to stay in the fight.
The popular former newscaster said she changed her mind after a “very powerful” person urged her to stay out of the Senate race, in which she could possibly challenge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). Unlimited money was offered, she claimed.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding?
I’m not inspired by money anyway. I walked away from a seven-figure [TV] contract and a big, high-profile job.’ And as I was ushering him out of my home, he said, ‘Well, what would it take?’ How much would it take, basically, to put my political career on ice for two years?” she said.
That’s when Lake realized 2024 might be her year, running on a ballot with Trump possibly at the top and in a state he remains popular in — and would need to win to retake the White House.
“They do not want me on the ballot because they know that with me on the ballot with President Trump, they’re going to have to roll out, even in a bigger way than they already have in 2020 and 2022, a cheating machine,” Lake said.
“That makes me feel that I need to double down and jump back in,” she said about a likely Senate race. She has taken the first step with a webpage, karilake.com.
In Unafraid — released on Tuesday from Winning Team Publishing, which published both of Trump’s post-presidency books — Lake details examples of the cheating by Democrats she believes robbed her of the governor’s office.
She said that with so many secrets revealed in various investigations and lawsuits, some foes have turned to legal actions to block her path and that of Trump to get on the ballot in 2024.
“We’ve seen how they did it in 2020. We’ve seen how they did it in ‘22. They know they can’t play those same cards because the people won’t have it and it’s just going to be harder and so that’s why they’re doing election interference. That’s why they are indicting Trump, throwing bogus lawsuits at him. They will do anything just to stop him from being on the ballot. And they’ll do the same to me,” she said.
“They do not want us on the ballot. They don’t want populist candidates. I think they’re going to have a hard time cheating this next go round. I really do. And that’s why they’re doing everything they can to just try to make sure he doesn’t end up on the ballot,” Lake said.
In his forward, Trump said Lake faced “highway robbery” in her election loss, as he has said about his 2020 defeat by President Joe Biden. But, he added, it didn’t crush her.
“In a situation like this, many candidates, too weak to fight, throw their hands up and accept this horrible and very unfair situation. But not Kari Lake. She has a great big heart but is as strong a fighter as there is. Kari knows we have no choice but to win, because they are destroying our country. Kari Lake’s story does not end in a defeat, because she is just getting started!” he wrote.
