Kari Lake Throws Down the Gauntlet: ‘Let’s See If You’re as Tough in a Debate as You Are Behind Your Keyboard’

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake called on Garrett Archer, a political analyst for KNXV-TV in Phoenix who uses the Twitter handle “Data Guru,” to accept a debate challenge from pollster Rich Barris over the legitimacy of the recent midterm elections in the state.

Barris tweeted Saturday, “The 2022 Arizona midterm elections were not conducted legitimately. I have no problem extending invites to PUBLICLY debate me over that fact. All fake ‘gurus’ … are welcome to apply.”

“A word of caution. You’re not as smart as you think you are and I’m going to embarrass you,” he added.

The 2022 Arizona midterm elections were not conducted legitimately. I have no problem extending invites to PUBLICLY debate me over that fact. All fake “gurus” and are welcome to apply.

A word of caution. You’re not as smart as you think you are and I’m going to embarrass you.
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— Rich Baris “The People’s Pundit” (@Peoples_Pundit) December 11, 2022

Lake’s campaign Twitter account replied, “We’d pay to watch @Garrett_Archer actually consider evidence of election fraud.”

Archer responded, “Me too. Do you have any?”

Me too. Do you have any?

— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) December 11, 2022

The campaign followed up by creating a poll on Twitter asking, “Does @Garrett_Archer have the courage to debate @Peoples_Pundit  about the 2022 election in Arizona?”

The poll showed about 90 percent of respondents believed he did not.

Lake herself encouraged Archer to accept the challenge, tweeting, “Come on, @Garrett_Archer. Let’s see if you’re as tough in a debate as you are behind your keyboard. What’d ya say? @Peoples_Pundit has agreed!”

Come on, @Garrett_Archer

Let’s see if you’re as tough in a debate as you are behind your keyboard. What’d ya say? ? @Peoples_Pundit has agreed!

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 12, 2022

Lake was a news anchor for KSAZ-TV in Phoenix for more than 20 years, stepping down in spring 2021 and announcing her bid for governor a few months later.

She filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the results of the governor’s race, in which Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was declared the winner, topping Lake by about 17,000 votes.

Lake’s filing in state court points to the widespread ballot printer and tabulator issues affecting 131 Maricopa County polling locations (59 percent of the total) as a reason the election failed to fulfill Arizona legal requirements.

The county has said 71 sites were impacted, about one-third in all.

Lake argued that since Republicans voted 3-to-1 over Democrats on Election Day, what happened was large-scale vote suppression of her supporters.

Archer tweeted last week that Election Day voters in Maricopa County (the Phoenix metropolitan area) strongly favored Republicans over Democrats.

2022 Maricopa voters by party and ballot type:

Total: 1.56M

By Mail
REP: 482k – 38%
DEM: 450k – 36%
OTH: 332k – 26%

Polling Place
REP: 129k – 51%
DEM: 43.6k – 17%
OTH: 78.6k – 31%

Early In Person
REP: 21.7k – 49%
DEM: 9.5k – 21%
OTH: 13.6k – 30%

— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) December 7, 2022

Lake told Real America’s Voice host Charlie Kirk on Monday, “Seventy-five percent of people voting on Election Day were voting for me. And then you basically shut down or make it impossible to vote or very difficult to vote at roughly 60 percent of the locations to vote, you’re going to cut into our lead. This is the disenfranchisement of voters in Arizona.”

.@KariLake: “The Board of Supervisors report is trying to diminish & downplay the level of ineptitude & malfeasance on Election Day. We have observers who have testified to what they saw, witnessed, and did on Election Day… and it goes against what the BOS are saying.” pic.twitter.com/WvZlp273t3

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 12, 2022

In addition to the voter machine issues, Lake’s lawsuit points to reported signature verification and ballot chain of custody issues.

The GOP candidate told Kirk that her filing includes affidavits from three whistleblowers who work for Maricopa County who said that 90 percent of ballots being flagged for signature mismatches did not go through the curing process.