Who is Kari Lak
Kari Ann Lake an American politician and a former television news anchor, was born on September 30, 1969 in the United States. She had been an anchor at the Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV for 22 years until she finally decided to retire from the position in March of 2021. On June 1, 2021, she made the announcement that she will be running for governor of Arizona, and she is currently the Republican nominee for the gubernatorial election in Arizona in 2022.
Early life and education
On September 30, 1969, Lake was born in Rock Island, Illinois. His parents, Larry A. Lake, a teacher and football and basketball coach from Richland Center, Wisconsin, and Sheila A. Lake (née McGuire), a nurse from Appleton, Wisconsin, brought him into the world. His father was a teacher and his mother was a nurse. She is the ninth and final kid in her family.
Lake grew up in Iowa
She first completed her high school education at North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, and afterwards attended the University of Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and journalism.
Media career
While still a student at the University of Iowa, Lake started working as an intern at the television station KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, in May of 1991. After that, she worked as an assistant producer for a while before landing a job as a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster at WHBF-TV in Rock Island, Illinois, in the year 1992. Lake was hired by KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, in August of 1994 to serve as the weekend weather anchor for the station. Later on, she became the evening anchor at KPNX before moving to Albany, New York, to begin working for WNYT in the summer of 1998. There, she took over for Chris Kapostasy as the host of the program.
In 1999, Lake relocated back to Arizona, where she worked as a news anchor for the evening on KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix).
During his time at KSAZ, Lake conducted interviews with both former President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump.
After leaving her position as a news anchor for a television station, Lake campaigned for governor of Arizona as a Republican and became known for her pro-Trump sentiments during her campaign.
During the final years of her career in the media, she used social media to disseminate incorrect and unsubstantiated information, which resulted in her receiving backlash[3] and earning a reputation for being a provocateur.
In 2018, she opposed the Red for Ed movement, which sought more funding for education through strikes and protests. She claimed that the movement was a “big push to legalize pot,” but she later apologized for the statement, saying that she “made an incorrect conclusion”
The regional director of human resources for the station stated that after that, the employee in question took an unforeseen leave of absence from her work at the station lasting one full month.
During the month of July 2019, Lake was recorded on “hot mic” footage while marketing her account on the website Parler.
In April of 2020, she posted inaccurate information about COVID-19 on both Twitter and Facebook.
During Lake’s final years at the station, the words she made and the actions she took turned her into a figure that was contentious among her coworkers.
In March of 2021, she made the decision to resign from her position at KSAZ just one day after the website FTVLive, which serves the television news industry, published a video clip of Lake attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando. The website posed the question of whether Lake was attending CPAC as a journalist or as a member of a movement. Lake stated that she was attending CPAC as a member of a movement.
In June of 2021, she made the announcement that she would run for governor.
Political career
Party switches
Before she switched her voter registration to independent on November 3, 2006[23], Lake was affiliated with the Republican Party. However, on that day, she decided to leave the party. On January 4, 2008, the day after Barack Obama was declared the winner of the Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa, she became a member of the Democratic Party. On January 31, 2012, Lake reclaimed his Republican affiliation after a brief hiatus. She stated that her decision to leave the Republican Party in 2006 was a response to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time. She had voted for John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, among other candidates. In addition, she gave a number of contributions to Democratic contenders for the presidency. Following the announcement of her candidacy for governor in 2021, Lake highlighted Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward as precedents for her decision to switch parties. All three of these individuals were were Democrats.
In June of 2021, Lake submitted the necessary paperwork to begin his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in the 2022 election.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a former real estate developer and current member of the Arizona Board of Regents; Paola Tulliani Zen; and Scott Neely were the four candidates who ran for the Republican nomination. Lake was one of them.
In terms of polling and financing, Lake and Robson were by and away the most successful candidates.
After falling behind in the polls, former Congressman Matt Salmon, a member of the Republican party, decided to withdraw from the campaign and give his support to Robson.
Lake received Donald Trump’s endorsement in September 2021.
The primary was interpreted as a “battle” between Republicans who supported Trump and Republicans affiliated with the establishment. Robson received endorsements from prominent politicians, including former Vice President Mike Pence, currently serving Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona, and former Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. At the end of the year 2021, Lake had collected $1.4 million from 12,000 different donors. [30] [31] Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House aide who promoted Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, attributed Lake’s victory in the Republican primary to her stance, despite the fact that she was “outspent 10-to-1.” Lake centered her campaign on promoting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and nationwide was “rigged and stolen.” Lake is running for the seat currently held by Martha McSally. On August 2, 2022, Lake won the Republican primary election in Arizona, and he was victorious in every county.
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 epidemic that began in August 2021, Lake organized anti-mask rallies and urged students at Arizona State University to defy the university’s mask restrictions. Lake stated that if she were elected governor, she would veto any legislation requiring people to wear masks or get vaccinations due to the COVID-19 epidemic. In November 2021, Lake disclosed to a gathering of Republican retirees that she was maintaining her immunity to COVID-19 by regularly ingesting hydroxychloroquine. She made it clear that if elected governor, she would make efforts to bring hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin production within the state’s borders in order to “make it easier for us to receive these lifesaving pharmaceuticals.” Lake stated that she did not get the COVID-19 vaccine and questioned the scientific rationale behind it [37]
Political positions
Lake considers herself to be a conservative Republican [23], and in the year 2022, she referred to herself as a “Trump candidate.” [12] She was successful in garnering the support of extremists on the right during her candidacy for governor in 2022. [38] [39] She stated the Democrats, including President Joe Biden, were working towards a “demonic agenda.” [12] Lake traveled to Orlando, Florida, in 2021 and 2022 to take part in the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC. CPAC is an annual gathering of Republicans and conservatives. [23] [24][40]
Lake stated in 2022 that she considers abortion to be “the ultimate sin”[41] and praised the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which held that there was no federal right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution and overturned Roe v. Wade. Lake also praised the decision of the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which held that there was no federal right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution.
She voiced her support for the legislation that would prohibit both surgical and medical abortions in the state of Arizona.
Lake stated in a piece she authored for the Independent Journal Review that if she were elected governor of Arizona, she would construct unfinished sections of Trump’s border wall and deport illegal immigrants who enter the state without first obtaining consent from the federal government.
Lake has taken a stance against the passage of legislation that would establish non-discrimination rights for people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. He also has issue with the establishment of restrooms that are accessible to transgender people.
In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia journalist Liam Bartlett, Lake stated that Australians “have no freedom” due to strict Australian gun laws; in a tweet several months[quantify] later, Lake stated that if elected governor, she would not “recognize” federal gun laws. Lake asserted that she would not “recognize” federal gun laws if she were elected governor.
Promotion of stolen election claims
Prior to his resignation, Lake was a key proponent of the bogus allegation that the presidential election in 2020 was “taken” from Trump. [51] During her campaign, she supported Trump’s [33] agenda and focused her candidacy on spreading election-related misinformation. [51] [52][53]
Lake asserted that former Vice President Joe Biden did not collect 81 million votes and that Donald Trump actually prevailed in the state of Arizona, which Biden had claimed to have won in the presidential election of 2020.
She gave credence to a fabrication made by Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington, who claimed that Democrats manipulate election results by manipulating mail-in votes. Quotes from Sidney Powell’s appearance on Lou Dobbs Tonight that Lake sent out inaccurately asserted that there was a widespread plot to commit electoral fraud. She has pushed for the incarceration of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor in 2022 as a Democrat, based on unsubstantiated and nonspecific charges of criminality relating to the 2020 election. Hobbs is running for governor in Arizona. [51] Additionally, Lake advocated for the imprisonment of journalists. [51] Lake maintained on multiple occasions that the suspects apprehended in connection with the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6 were “being kept in prison without being charged.” [56] [57]
Trump, along with other pro-Trump Republican heavyweights such as Arizona congressman Paul Gosar and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, backed Lake’s bid for the office. [58] Lake also received Trump’s endorsement.
Robson, on the other hand, was the main opponent that Lake faced in the primary election. Robson received endorsements not only from outgoing Republican governor Doug Ducey[60], but also from Arizona Senate president Karen Fann and Americans for Prosperity.
Robson was the target of attacks by Lake because he did not support fraudulent charges of electoral fraud.
Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow and a notable proponent of bogus claims regarding election fraud in 2020, was the host of several gatherings that Lake attended.
During her campaign for governor in 2021, she stated that if she had been in office during the 2020 election, she would not have acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona. This was in reference to the state’s presidential election.
Lake continued to argue that the presidential election that took place in 2020 was “stolen” and “corrupt” while participating in a debate among candidates for the Republican candidacy in June 2022.
In July 2022, Fox News reported that days [quantify] before Trump’s inauguration, Lake had posted a meme on Facebook that declared the inauguration a “national day of mourning and protest.” In the meme, she asked her followers how they would react to Trump’s inauguration and declared the inauguration a “national day of mourning and protest.” She inquired, “Will you be protesting the inauguration?” and went on to inquire about the manner in which they could demonstrate. After Fox News inquired about it, the post was removed from Lake’s campaign’s website. [62] [63] On October 16, 2022, Lake refused on two separate occasions to say that she will accept the result if she does not win the election, stating instead that she is going to win the election and that she will accept that result.
Dispute with Rick Stevens
Rick Stevens, who performs professionally under the name Barbra Seville, published photos and text messages purportedly demonstrating a professional relationship and personal friendship with Lake after Lake posted remarks critical of drag queens performing in front of children. Stevens performs professionally under the name Barbra Seville. Stevens stated that he has performed at Lake’s residence and in front of Lake’s daughter when she was “9 or 10 years old.” Lake was the one who invited Stevens to perform there. Lake called Stevens’ accusations “defamatory lies,” notably denying that the two of them had ever been friends and denying that he had ever been in her home. She also denied that Stevens had ever been in her home. Lake has threatened legal action not only against Stevens but also against the outlets that investigated the subject.
Endorsement of Jarrin Jackson
Jarrin Jackson, an extreme right-wing online streamer, is running for state Senate in Oklahoma, and Lake has given his support to him. Following this, Jackson’s history of making antisemitic comments came under scrutiny, including his assertions that “the Jews” are proof that “evil exists,” “Jews will go to hell,” and “Jews [are] taking over the globe.” These factors led to the formation of organizations like as the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, which demanded that Lake and other Arizona Republicans who had endorsed Jackson withdraw their support for Jackson’s candidacy. Lake was outraged by Jackson’s remarks, and he stated, “I looked at Jarrin’s credentials and saw that he had been in the military and seen combat in Afghanistan. It is not possible to investigate everything that a person has ever stated in their lifetime. In the event that what has been stated about him is accurate, I must state that I am withdrawing my support.”
Envelope investigation
An envelope was sent to Lake’s campaign headquarters on November 6, 2022, which was two days before the election in the state of Arizona. After conducting investigations, her staff discovered that the letter contained a “suspicious white powder.” In addition, agents from the FBI and members of a bomb squad were dispatched to the headquarters in order to conduct additional research into the suspicious parcel. As of the late year 2022, the investigation is still on. In his response, Lake referred to the event as an act of political violence. Following their exposure to the material, the members of the staff who opened the envelope are currently receiving medical care.
Personal life
Since the month of August in 1998, Lake has been married to Jeff Halperin. Formerly married to Tracy Finnegan, an electrical engineer, he was her ex-husband. She referred to herself as a Buddhist prior to the year 2015, but in 2019 she made the decision to become a Christian and recommitted herself to God. e envelope are undergoing treatment at this time as a result of their exposure to the chemical.
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