Kari Lake Squirms Over 2020 Election Lies in Tense CNN Interview, Refuses 3 Times to Say She’ll Honor Election Results if She Loses
CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake over her repeated, false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump.
Bash spoke with Lake on State of the Union — before separately interviewing Lake’s rival for governor, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. After running through a battery of topics, Bash questioned Lake on her repeated insistence that the 2020 election was rigged or corrupt, despite the lack of evidence presented before court.
Lake answered by claiming “there’s plenty of evidence,” of election corruption that the media simply refuses to cover. As Lake and Bash sparred over Democrats and Republicans undermining public trust in the integrity of elections, the CNN anchor rolled footage of former Trump officials who’ve torpedoed the ex-president’s claims about widespread election fraud.
“So these are President Trump’s own top Justice Department officials,” Bash said. “Why not believe them?”
Lake deflected from the question with the 2020 fight for Maricopa County, then referred to the primary mishaps that dragged down Pinal County in recent weeks.
LAKE: All I’m saying is we need to restore honesty and integrity in our elections.
BASH: You’re right it doesn’t bring votes back, but at least that is transparent. If leaders like you and President Trump are saying that the election was stolen, aren’t you participating, contributing, even causing the idea of people thinking that the election is not safe and secure?
LAKE: No. We are going to make sure our elections are safe and secure for Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike. We want to know our legal vote counted. We want to know the winner on election night. We don’t want to be counting for ten days.
BASH: Don’t you want your votes to be counted? Don’t you want your votes to be counted no matter how long it takes in 2022, in November?
This exchange eventually led to Bash asking Lake if she will accept the results of the gubernatorial election. Lake answered by repeatedly dodging until the third time she received the question, responding “I’m going to win the election and I will accept that result.”
“If you lose, will you accept that?” Bash asked.
“I’m going to win the election and accept that result,” Lake said. “The people will never support and vote for a coward like Katie Hobbs…”
Watch above via CNN.
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