Failed Arizona candidate Kari Lake said it is "probably true" that a "CIA coup" took control of the United States and caused her to lose the 2022 election for governor.
During an interview billed as having a "mega-bombshell," conspiracy theorist Pete Santilli repeatedly pushed Lake to talk about what he believed was a CIA-backed coup d'état.
"I will raise a trillion dollars for any candidate, including President Trump and yourself, that says, 'Ladies and gentlemen, this is a CIA coup.' This system is so corrupt, and the courts have been corrupted."
"The leaders that come out and say, 'Let's launch a counter-coup through the system; let's rally together.' I'm saying we've got a CIA coup; let's not have a bake sale in response," the host told Lake. "That was my criticism [of you]."
"What you're saying, I'm absolutely sure, is probably true," Lake replied. "And I haven't looked at all the evidence, but nothing would shock me anymore."
Santilli followed up: "All I'm asking, is this an overthrow of the United States of America by this entity, you know, the intel services? We already know the FBI has been involved in it. The Central Intelligence Agency."
"Are you courageous enough to say, this is a coup, and we need to counter it in the fashion that we're doing?" he pressed.
"But I think you left one of the most damaging entities out of that," Lake said. "And that is the fake news. The mainstream media has been lying to people for so long, prevented us from speaking about 2020 — except for the brave ones — lied about the laptop, lied about Trump, lied about everything."
At one point, Santilli became frustrated with Lake's lukewarm acknowledgment of the alleged coup.
"You're asking if there's a coup going on?" she said.
"You said that the mainstream media, the CIA Mockingbird media is complicit in that," Santilli remarked. "It's a coup d'état, and we need to respond to it accordingly as a counter-coup d'état."
"Yeah," Lake agreed.
"We have to talk about the counter to the coup, not just go into a corrupt court system," Santilli opined. "Because that's like going as a rape victim, right? You want to go to court, and they say, 'all rise,' and the person in the black robe is the rapist."
"The court system is corrupt, and it is part of the coup," he added.
"You know, it is corrupt," Lake confirmed. "You're right. The judiciary is corrupt."
Lake's legal team is in the process of appealing a court verdict finding she legitimately lost the 2022 election.
