Lake: ‘I don't know who exactly stole the election’
Kari Lake acknowledged in an interview on Monday that she didn’t “know who exactly stole the election” after being pressed multiple times for proof that the election had been stolen, but argued the country’s elections were not secure.
Lake, who narrowly lost the Arizona gubernatorial race in 2022 to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), is running for Arizona Senate against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
Lake gained notoriety during the 2022 cycle for questioning the 2020 results between former President Trump and President Biden, though Biden won Arizona by just over a quarter of a percentage point in 2020. She’s also filed lawsuits disputing the results of her 2022 election, though they’ve largely been rejected in court.
During an interview on “Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos” on KTAR News 92.3 FM, Lake was asked if she could explain who stole the election from her in 2022 and how they did it.
“Yeah, well, you can look at my lawsuits, and I'm happy to do that. But I don't want to sit and look backwards because as you have complained, she just constantly looks backward,” Lake said. “I want to look forward and these lawsuits are meant to make sure that going forward, our elections are strong, that the people of Arizona have faith in them.”
Lake was pressed again on who stole the gubernatorial election from her and how it happened before the Arizona Republican acknowledged she didn’t know who specifically had compromised the election against her.
“The elections are run poorly. They're -- they're run very poorly, and I don't know who exactly stole the election, but there are a lot of people who are running elections poorly, and we've seen the results,” Lake said.
“I'm hoping that you're not okay with four, five and six hour lines and 60 percent of the machines not working on Election Day. I think that every Arizonan wants to make sure when they cast their one legal vote, it counts. We have election month, and we count votes for two weeks. It's not working out. There's too many areas where fraud can slip in,” she claimed.
Lake added that believed the issue of faith in the U.S. election system was a bipartisan issue and argued large portions of Republicans, independents and Democrats believed elections have been “fraudulent.”
Lake’s comments come as she has looked to pivot away from her previous comments on the 2020 and 2022 elections and as Republicans have urged candidates to look toward the future and not the past, though Lake continued to legally dispute the 2022 results after the election.
Lake is expected to go against Gallego in Arizona for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) seat, though it’s unclear if Sinema will launch a last-minute bid. The seat is considered critical for either party in determining the Senate majority this fall.