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Kari Lake Triggers All the Right People as Media’s ‘Worse Than Trump’ Narrative Takes Shape

Kari Lake Triggers All the Right People as Media’s ‘Worse Than Trump’ Narrative Takes Shape

“[Lake’s ‘Trumpism’] replicates the venomous nature of his rhetoric while pretending to appeal to people’s better angels (something Trump ostentatiously avoided). In its cunning and deceptiveness, this version is scarier than the original rendition,” WaPo columnist Greg Sargent wrote.

https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1582403573811318784

As I’ve often said, the mainstream media is nothing if not predictable, and few things exemplify that more than the various “worse than Trump” narratives they’ve tried to push regarding prominent Republicans who have further asserted themselves in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidency.

We’ve seen it repeatedly in their write-ups on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, first in April of this year. They revived it over the summer and once again last month after DeSantis flying two planeloads of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard sent them over the edge.

And now, with just three weeks to go before an Election Day where a red wave has been predicted – at least on the House side – the media are trotting out the “worse than Trump” card on another outspoken Republican, Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.

Exhibit A comes courtesy of a column written Monday by left-wing Washington Post columnist/Plum Line writer Greg Sargent, who tells us that Lake is an even “scarier” version of Trump because, unlike Trump, she allegedly pretends “to appeal to people’s better angels”:

It sounded very much like Trumpism. Appearing on CNN, Kari Lake defiantly refused on Sunday to accept the results of the Arizona gubernatorial election. She fearmongered about the southern border, insisting hordes of criminals are invading the country.

So this means Lake is imitating Donald Trump’s unabashed abandonment of democracy and his demagoguing of migrants as criminals, rapists and drug dealers, right?

Well, yes, but with a twist.

Lake might be finding a new way to move Trumpism forward in the post-Trump era. It replicates the venomous nature of his rhetoric while pretending to appeal to people’s better angels (something Trump ostentatiously avoided). In its cunning and deceptiveness, this version is scarier than the original rendition.

Exhibit B comes from The Atlantic, where writer Elaine Godfrey suggested that in Lake, “Trumpism Has Found Its Leading Lady”:

The way Lake has imitated Trump’s rhetoric is obvious, but as I’ve followed her in the months since, something else has become clear: She is much better at this than Trump’s other emulators. That makes sense, given her first career in front of the camera, cultivating trust among thousands of Maricopa County viewers. But this is more than imitation: Lake has made MAGA her own. She’s agile as a politician in a way that other high-profile Trump-endorsed candidates, like scandal-plagued Herschel Walker and crudités-eating Mehmet Oz, are not. Lake is more likable than Senate hopefuls like Blake Masters or J. D. Vance. And she bats at the press with a vivacity unmatched by anyone but the big man himself.

[…]

“She’s using 25 years of high-level journalism to present an idea,” another former Fox 10 colleague told me. “And she’s smart! She’s not dumb. Which makes her frickin’ dangerous, if you ask me.”

Former Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill also echoed the predictable media talking point during a recent appearance on MSNBC:

As the case was with their attacks on DeSantis, there is an obvious panic that has taken root in elite Democrat/media/Never Trump circles because Lake, who is both an effective messenger for right-wing ideals and unapologetically conservative, has given her all against her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs in a swing state that is showing signs they favor Lake over Hobbs.

For that, Lake must be destroyed, and playing the “Trump” card and throwing out “election denier” accusations is the course of action they’ve decided to take at this point in the game in hopes that it will scare independent voters into opposing Lake.

But Lake is giving them hell on that front, too, as shown in the below video clip where she takes on a swarm of reporters who were pressing her on the “election denier” accusation, only to be informed that if they were going to throw around the term then they should talk about Democrats like failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who continues to be in denial about what happened in 2016.

Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018 and who still to this day as the 2022 nominee denies she lost that election, was also given a shout-out by Lake:

In my opinion, this is how it should be done, because the “election denier” and Trump cards have been played too long and without enough forceful pushback from the Republican party, which is incredible when one recalls how loudly and how often both Clinton and Abrams denied their election results, and how some of the same House Democrats who led the effort to impeach Trump over his Jan. 6 speech acted just a few years earlier to try and deny his electoral vote certification.

It’s impossible to predict whether Lake will win her race next month, but one thing is for certain: Like DeSantis, she is paving the way forward for future generations of Republican leaders on how to effectively use the Democrats’ own words against them while at the same time countering bogus media narratives before they can take root, two very important qualities for Republicans to hold at a time when political activism in the mainstream press continues to get worse.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —

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Comments

Oh the Dems problems! Cherchez la femme?

    henrybowman in reply to Whitewall. | October 18, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    “And she’s smart! She’s not dumb. Which makes her frickin’ dangerous, if you ask me.”
    Oh, I think we’ve had more than enough Democrats prove how dangerous stupidity is.

I will feel so defeated if she loses…

They will cheat and it’s really wayyy too close

Why oh why is it close at all?

Amazing what pushing back with a smile does to outrage the d/prog and their media allies. A calm, even tempered approach in delivering the message seems to evoke more anger in the left than pithy remarks or mean tweets. I thought the style / delivery was the issue with DJT but Lake, DeSantis, Masters among others reveal it was the message all along and never the messenger at all. What will French, Goldberg and Brooks blame now?

I’m so proud of my adopted state.
This is stuff everybody knows, but “our” politicians are too cowardly to say. Other than a few exceptions like MJG and Gosar (another one from AZ).
But they don’t get the coverage Kari is getting.
Kari is living proof of how much we’ve lost as far as eloquence in politics.
The lady NEVER says “uh.” NEVER. And the effect is like watching her opposition get hammered feet first into the ground.

    She never giggles or cackles either. She answers all questions and doesn’t let the reporters bully her with accusatory/insulting follow-ups. She IS like Trump and DeSantis. Prepared, fearless, poised, engaging and always ready to pounce on stupid questions. Adults among children. That is why most Democrats are refusing to debate. Name calling is all they know. And they only have one script that everyone has to comply with (ask Tulsi).

      TheOldZombie in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 18, 2022 at 6:54 pm

      I wish all Republicans had her skill in dealing with the media. She’s very good at it. I’d say she’s even better than DeSantis and he’s good at dealing with the media as well.

      If she can do a good job as Governor I could see her competing for POTUS down the line.

      Dimsdale in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 18, 2022 at 7:51 pm

      And she doesn’t have to stall or change the subject. In fact, as the “election denier” takedown demonstrated, she comes fully prepared for their loaded questions.

      Ghostrider in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 18, 2022 at 11:41 pm

      To all the guys on this site, let’s be honest. Who among us would not want to have dated Kari in college? She is truly amazing and beautiful.

      Conservative, strong-willed, fearless, articulate, and intelligent. They didn’t have girls like her at my eastern college.

I guess I feel a bit venomous too, after so much getting I’d like to give. Tis better to give than receive after all.

I’d vote for her even more times if she’s “venomous”, if it were legal.

Tulsi is supposed to be coming to Arizona to campaign for Lake. That will be fun.

Won’t stick. No mean tweets.

Its impossible not to like her.

Same with Governor DeSantis.

They make the same points that President Trump did, but in a far more articulate and polished manner. They’re much better at making converts than he was also. Its not just red meat for the base to fire us up, they are making clear and concise arguments that are very persuasive and bring people over to our side.

    Valerie in reply to Aarradin. | October 19, 2022 at 9:01 am

    Have you bothered to actually listen to President Trump? He is articulate, and far more coherent and gently spoken than most of the Democrats in Washington. His foreign policy speeches showed that he is a student of history, too.

    Of course, I remember his Inauguration speech, that the WaPo was graceless enough to call “dark” for making a promise to our black families.

    geronl in reply to Aarradin. | October 19, 2022 at 9:41 am

    I do not like candidates who talk about big penis on the campaign trail.

Instead of slinging lame, idiotic and desperate “worse than Trump” vitriol, the vile Dumb-o-crats should be defending their open borders insanity, their “trans” radicalism and indoctrination of children, their undermining of U.S. oil and gas production, their profligate spending orgies, their gleeful support for goose-stepping, brownshirted “Anti-fa” and “Black Lives Matter” insurrectionist thugs who — with the active enabling and encouragement of Dumb-o-crat Party leadership — laid waste to cities across the U.S. in a brazen display of violence and destruction for most of year 2020, and, their destructive, callous, totalitarian and lawless Wuhan virus diktats.

    They cannot do any of that, which is why many Democrat candidates are avoiding debates altogether. They won’t even give a straight answer to an interviewer about limits on abortion or defending the border. Katie Hobbs is the poster child for the current crop of inarticulate Democrats.

      guyjones in reply to Dave. | October 19, 2022 at 2:40 pm

      Not to mention, the Dumbs are incapable/unwilling to answer the simple question, “What is a woman?”

Why are the dems ramping up their War on Women again? They are such misogynists.

I fail to see how any of this is even bad. It amazes me that a group of people can find making America great again to be so offensive.

    Suburban Farm Guy in reply to Ironclaw. | October 19, 2022 at 9:03 am

    Offensive? More like an existential threat. The vitriol, the unhinged derangement, the illegality and the rush to throw out all norms of decency and civility over this simple concept point to something really, really deep.

    It’s almost as if their Marxist takeover is getting some #Resistance or something… It must be more fragile than we realize.

I’m really hoping she wins and gets a chance to clean up the elections in AZ. So much went wrong in AZ in 2020.

You know what deep down really pisses off the political class? The fact that people like Donald Trump, Kari Lake, Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker haven’t spent a lifetime getting elected to stepping stone offices.

They believe that these citizen-candidates haven’t EARNED their place, that they haven’t paid their dues like Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and of course the ultimate political animal, Sleepy Joe Biden.

When the political class shows their distain for a citizen-candidate, you know that’s the person you want to vote for because the candidate has your interests mind.

President Trump’s big sin was not his mean tweets. That was an excuse. He cut off the gravy train. And now, they are making up for lost time, stripping the middle and lower classes for their own benefit.

Arizonans, and not just in Maricopa County, have known Kari for over 20 years. All this BS from dems with no connection to the state underestimate this if they even recognize it at all. Her takedowns of the media during the campaign have become something of a legend. People down here genuinely like and trust her, unlike the shrewish elitist scold she’s running against. We will be very surprised and very upset if the left manages to steal this election (and most think that’s the only path for a Hobbs victory.)

BiteYourTongue | October 19, 2022 at 9:33 am

AZ resident here, Kari will be getting my vote. I have no idea what Hobbs is doing, except playing the Biden card of hiding in the basement.

Christians and traditional values voters sure love it when a candidate talks about Big Penis on the campaign trail. Not.

BierceAmbrose | October 19, 2022 at 3:48 pm

Funny how they don’t talk about Orange Man Bad’s policies, or hers.

S N Korea wasn’t lobbing missiles about any more.

— Russia hadn’t invaded anybody for a while.

— China wasn’t announcing “soon” re: Taiwan (And Hong Kong had not been occupied, ahead of the promised timeline.)

— Abraham accords. Embassy to Israel moved to Jerusalem (as every prezzy-wanna-be and elected had promised for how long?)

— You wanna afford oil, kinda better to produce oil in US — that’ a thing. And pipelines with our allies maybe better than pipelines with our opponents.

— You wanna make a new regulation, get rid of some other ones.

— And, yes, a wall on our Southern border.

— Economy was up. Overdose, suicide, and untreated condition deaths down. Blah, blah, blah…

For behavior, they really only object to people who decline to play Washington Generals to their Globetrotters. And for policy, they mostly object to The Orange Crush’s feral canniness. He’d slam them when they went too far. BUT he’s also let something play out when he couldn’t win. Why no Feds “occupying” all those cities of perpetual riot? It wasn’t a move he could win.

As it turns out, the Jan 6 show trial has uncovered comms of the Insurrectionist In Chief, offering federal troop mobilization to DC — they declined. Some insurrectionist: “Here, lemmie put troops otherwise under my command under yours.”