Kari Lake won't sever ties with white nationalists: Columnist

Kari Lake will not sever ties with antisemites and white nationalists as she works to claim a seat in the U.S. Senate, an Arizona columnist warned state voters this week.

"Make no mistake," wrote E.J. Montini. "While they’ll make every effort not to appear like a white nationalist or an antisemite, they’ll actively be courting the votes of individuals who are."

Montini's missive for azcentral arrived on the heels of the watchdog nonprofit Media Matters for America report detailing the U.S. Senate hopeful's ties to "numerous antisemitic media figures.”

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Those media figures include Jarrin Jackson, who has said he agrees Jews are “taking over the world,” podcaster Michael Scheuer, who said Jewish people are “disloyal and subversive,” and a fitness influencer who veered from COVID-19 denial into antisemitism, according to the report.

Montini shared the report with readers and notes Lake has also openly praised Arizona politicians with storied pasts, such as Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who shared extremist material calling the Holocaust “the Holohoax," as "the GOAT." or greatest of all time.

And Lake has called Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers a “hero,” despite her 2022 censure for embracing white nationalism.

Montini urged voters to remember these ties even if Lake and her like tone down the rhetoric for campaign season.

"If an opponent brings up their associations with white nationalists or antisemites, or some past use of ugly tropes, they’ll call it dirty politics or, in the Donald Trump vernacular, fake news," Montini wrote.

He also reminded readers of an old maxim: “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.”