Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was not having it when reporters wanted her to address whether she is a 2020 election denier.
“If you’re going to start throwing around terms like election denier, let’s remember who the other election deniers were: Hillary Clinton and all the Democrats,” Lake said at a Monday campaign event in Phoenix.
“Let’s talk about election deniers. Here’s 150 examples of Democrats denying election results,” Lake said holding up a handful of documents.
Two of the most prominent she identified were 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and 2018 Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams.
“So it’s ok for Democrats to question elections, but it’s not ok for Republicans. It’s a crock of BS. Every one of you knows it. We have our freedom of speech, as we’re not going to relinquish it to a bunch of fake news propagandists,” Lake said.
Let’s talk about “Election Deniers.”
I brought receipts. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/0vzg0ecdx3— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 18, 2022
After President Joe Biden delivered a controversial Independence Hall speech last month accusing MAGA Republicans of undermining democracy by not accepting the 2020 election results, the Republican National Committee released a 10-minute-long video of Democrats denying or casting doubt on the 2016, 2004 and 2000 elections.
Clinton appeared multiple times in the video claiming that Trump is not the legitimate president.
“You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee and you can have the election stolen from you,” she said in 2019.
Here is ten straight minutes of Democrats denying election results.pic.twitter.com/bJRbzEcIO2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 4, 2022
The current White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, tweeted in December 2016 following Trump’s win, “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election …..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted a few months after Trump took office in 2016: “Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.”
Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2017
In January 2005, then-House Minority Leader Pelosi supported Democrats rising to object to the Electoral College votes of Ohio being counted in the 2004 race between George W. Bush and John Kerry. The outcome in Ohio was decisive in 2004.
“Mr. Speaker, today we are witnessing democracy at work,” Pelosi said. “This debate is fundamental to our democracy.”
She added, “Constantly shifting vote tallies in Ohio and malfunctioning electronic machines, which may not have paper receipts, have led to additional loss of confidence by the public.”
These were the kinds of things Lake and Republicans had concerns about regarding the 2020 election.
The GOP also highlighted the media’s double standard when it comes to labeling Abrams an election denier versus Republican candidates and office holders.
The party assembled a list of 35 times it found the Democrat denied the 2018 governor’s election result in Georgia.
In a Sunday interview with Lake, CNN’s Dana Bash spent over half the approximately 12-minute interchange asking the candidate multiple questions about her views regarding the 2020 election.
Bash noted that Lake has called the election rigged and stolen, but the CNN host said no evidence had been presented “anywhere” of such things.
Lake responded that there was plenty of evidence offering that there were 740,000 ballots with no chain of custody and therefore should not have been counted.
Bash countered that such claims were debunked.
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