For most candidates, giving a campaign speech with the Confederate Flag as your backdrop on one day, managing to piss off State Sheriffs on another, and having your lawyer lose his license to practice law would be considered a bit of a setback. And it would be for anyone else, but not for the plucky election-denying radical extremist that is Kari Lake. For her, it's just par for the course. Like Trump, chaos follows her everywhere she goes.
Source: The Guardian
The Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake addressed supporters with a Confederate flag displayed behind her during a campaign event at a Trump merchandise store in Arizona last week, where she repeated false claims about election fraud.
In footage obtained by the Guardian, Lake is seen speaking into a microphone, surrounded by a group of supporters, at the Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona. Behind her, a Confederate battle flag and a yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flag are affixed to the wall. Both flags are available for purchase on the website of Trumped Store, which sells an array of merchandise with the former president’s name and likeness.
Writing on X last week, Lake described the event as a “magical day”.
Reached for comment about the video, a spokesperson for Kari Lake told the Guardian: “The Kari Lake campaign does not respond to British propaganda outlets. We stopped doing that in 1776.”
Kari Lake's spokesperson sounds just as deeply unserious as Kari Lake herself.
The Arizona Republic noted that her visit caused problems for Steve Slaton, the owner of the Trumped Store, a popular hangout for extremists and election deniers. Slaton is running for the Arizona Legislature and claimed in a recent interview to be a Vietnam War vet.
“I was a combat veteran in Vietnam for four months in support of the missions of the South Vietnamese and patrolled along the DMZ,” he said.
Days later, the Mountain Daily Star reported that Slaton’s official military records show he was stationed in South Korea during 1974, serving mostly as a helicopter mechanic.
Oops.
Responding to this, the Lake campaign told The Arizona Republic, “Kari Lake went to a store. The campaign doesn’t own the store.” Effectively throwing Steve Slaton to the curb.
On Thursday, she received a letter of condemnation from most of Arizona's sheriffs for comments she made about Sheriff Mark Lamb, her Republican opponent in next month's primary.
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake was condemned by nine of Arizona's 14 sheriffs Thursday as she attended an event for Donald Trump.
While Lake was appearing at a Trump town hall event in Phoenix, the sheriffs sent a letter denouncing Lake for calling Sheriff Mark Lamb, a rival GOP candidate, a "total coward" for not bringing election fraud cases.
"Kari Lake's recent comment calling Sheriff Mark Lamb a 'coward' is both unfounded and disrespectful," the group's letter said.
And then on Friday, Kari Lake's attorney had his license suspended for lying to the court.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s presiding disciplinary judge hearing panel ruled June 7 to suspend Bryan Blehm’s Arizona law license for 60 days, with one year of probation and a requirement to complete ethical training. Blehm also must pay the State Bar of Arizona’s legal costs for the disciplinary proceedings.
The panel stated that a long-term suspension was not warranted, in part because it was Blehm’s first disciplinary offense and “the misrepresentations at issue were so blatantly obvious there was little chance the Arizona Supreme Court would be misled by them.”
