On Tuesday, writing for The Daily Beast, conservative columnist Matt Lewis scorched defeated Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for embracing a Trump-style Big Lie, pursuing legal action against an election that was settled and certified against her weeks ago, and chasing support from the MAGA movement, all while her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs is set to be sworn in as governor.
Nearly all of Trump's endorsed candidates who lost, even other election deniers like Doug Mastriano, have conceded their races. But Lake, a former news anchor from Phoenix, refuses to do so.
"Six weeks ago, she looked like the future. Today, she looks like the saddest dead-ender," wrote Lewis. "I’m talking about Kari Lake, who was poised to be one of the GOP’s brightest rising stars heading into the 2022 midterms. Lake had all the marks of a winner, but after losing a close election, she has doubled down on a losing bet: election denial. We saw it again at this weekend’s Turning Point USA AmericaFest event. 'I know that right now we can identify as anything we want to identify, but I want you to know that I identify as a proud election-denying deplorable!' Lake said at the conference on Sunday. She continued, 'And my pronouns are…I/won.' She also called for Maricopa County election officials to be 'locked up' and made obscene gestures at the media."
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"As you can see, Lake has become something akin to a one-hit wonder who keeps playing the same old tune for the same tired applause. The song was never that great to begin with and, in any case, it was a cover. All this to say Lake’s reboot of Trump’s 2020 flop isn’t just laughably bad, it’s also derivative and outdated," wrote Lewis. "Talk about being late to the party. Doubling down on election denial after Republicans choked in the 2022 midterms (as a result of Trump’s reverse Midas touch and 'candidate quality' issues) is sort of like deciding to invest big in FTX cryptocurrency… today."
Most Republicans, noted Lewis, have moved on and are fighting about social policy, not trying to litigate the election.
"Don’t take my word for it. Republicans keep saying they are bored with the Big Lie. A college student at the TPUSA event, for example, told Politico it was an 'easy' choice to pick [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis over Trump because 'All [Trump] does is talk about 2020,'" wrote Lewis. "If it’s not working for Trump, who is losing relevance by the day, why would it work for a Trump imitator?"
