Kari Lake is done. An unlikely Republican Party gubernatorial candidate for Arizona in 2022, Lake’s failure to achieve victory should be the end of her bizarre foray into politics. A lightning rod because of her shameless parroting of borderline conspiracy theories as well as her apparent election denialism, Lake has become toxic in the eyes of most voters.
Yet, she persists in getting airtime and plaudits on the Right. In fact, for some time it appeared as though Lake was being groomed to be former President Donald Trump’s running-mate for his controversial reelection bid in 2024.
The only problem for Kari Lake is that she’s an attention-seeker—just like Trump. And in Trump’s view, there can only be one diva around him … and that’s him, not Kari Lake.
Lake was a promising gubernatorial candidate. She was tough, well-spoken, looked good on camera, and had stage presence. What’s more, Lake spoke with conviction about whatever issue she was discussing. But then something happened.
Going Down the Political Rabbit Hole
Early on during the 2022 campaign, Lake began becoming belligerent with members of the press and combative over the most ridiculous of issues. Lake started sounding and acting like Donald Trump did during his first successful run for the presidency in 2016.
Then Lake took things a step further and started implying that she’d not accept the results of the election if they went against her. After she lost her bid for Arizona’s governorship, Lake went a full-blown election denier.
Yet, it remains to be seen if Kari Lake truly believed what she was saying, or if Lake was just making these claims as a means of keeping herself relevant in the media’s spotlight. She did remain relevant in the media, but not for the reasons she likely would have wanted to be.
Far from being a tough-talking, no-nonsense conservative on a mission, Lake devolved into a tragicomic example of what happens to one’s brain when they become too active on Right-wing Twitter. Lake was infamous for her push to overturn the 2022 election in Arizona. She was famous because of the way she treated reporters and manipulated people into believing that she had, in fact, won the Arizona election in 2022.
Basically, many people wrote her off as nuts. That may play well in certain corners of the internet. That does not, however, bode well for anyone possessing wider political ambitions.
And once fully onboard the Trump Train, as Kari Lake clearly was, she began courting the forty-fifth president for more support and exposure. He was more than happy to oblige because Trump likely believed that Lake would be useful. Yet, that assistance has its limits.
Lake basically went from living at Trump’s residence in South Florida, Mar-a-Lago, to simply disappearing from view. Rumors even abounded that she was getting a little too friendly with former President Trump. Those rumors notwithstanding, Trump was also rumored to have been eying Lake for his possible vice-presidential running mate in 2024.
But that was suddenly shut down.
Trump Doesn’t Like Lake’s Air Time
It is believed that Trump started disliking the amount of media attention that Lake was getting. He apparently felt somewhat threatened by her public appeal and wanted her out of his orbit, so as to slow her ability to get cameras on her every move.
Trump pushed Lake away because of her star power (incidentally, it was this star power that was the same catalyst for Trump cozying up to her in the first place).
Lake has disappeared and no one knows whether she will make a comeback. Her name is still on the top of everyone’s list for the likeliest Trump VP running mate. But I suspect that her time in politics is finally at an end.
Lake simply went too far into the deep end of the Right-wing Internet sphere. She paid the price. What’s more, Lake appeared to be getting better press than he was. All this likely led to Lake’s demise as a real contender for Trump’s VP slot.
Kari Lake is the light that failed. She held so much promise. But she frittered it all away for Donald Trump. As the former president might tweet, “So sad!”
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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