'Said in jest': Scrambling Kari Lake walks back 'loser' attack on John McCain

In an attempt to repair the damage she left behind during her 2020 Republican gubernatorial bid, former local newscaster Kari Lake is trying to make amends with admirers of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Lake lost her bid to be Arizona's governor in 2020 — and followed that up with continuing accusations of election fraud — in part because of her attacks on McCain, a widely revered war hero who was the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008.

In the waning days before the 2022 election, Lake made her feelings known about supporters of the late senator at a rally when she exclaimed, "We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out! It was the party of McCain. It was bad. Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?"

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Now, as she attempts to shore up support for her shot at taking a seat in the U.S. Senate, Lake is singing a different tune

According to a report from the Washington Post, "Lake, who’s been endorsed by Trump, is telling Republicans privately that her rejection of 'McCain Republicans' — when she called McCain a loser and told his fans to 'get the hell out' of anevent on the campaign trail — took placein the context of a bruising primary campaign and was not serious."

Speaking with the Post she explained, "It was not said a week before the election, it was said a full year ahead of the election while I was taking what was the equivalent of a nuclear financial bomb of attack ads and I was an ‘America First’ Republican running against a ‘McCain Republican.' And it was said in jest.”

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