By Jon Dougherty. Media: Explain America.
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake energized a venue over the weekend with a fiery speech in which she vowed retribution against “evil b*stards” who were involved with the gubernatorial race in Arizona. Lake made her remarks at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, reports noted.
A video posted online caught a snippet of the speech in which Lake declared, “They messed with the wrong b*tch!”
Kari Lake: "They've Messed With The Wrong B*tch, Okay?"pic.twitter.com/tEIHyp0AIR
— Patriot News Alerts (@pxn45) December 18, 2022
State officials have already certified the gubernatorial race for the declared victor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, who is currently the secretary of state. Her office certified the victory as well of around 17,000 votes.
Lake, however, has refused to concede the race and has filed a lawsuit alleging intentional mismanagement of the balloting process on Election Day, which saw long lines at polling places caused by printers running out of ink, vote tally machines being unable to read ballots, and other issues.
Last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson gave Lake a partial victory during a court proceeding in which he granted three of four requests to conduct inspections of random ballots and ballot materials.
Thompson approved requests by Lake’s legal team to review 50 random “ballot on demand” printed ballots cast on Election Day, as well as another 50 early ballots cast from “six separate Maricopa County batches.” Furthermore, Thompson approved her to examine another 50 random ballot-on-demand printed ballots that were marked as spoiled.
However, the judge rejected a request from the GOP candidate to inspect 50 randomly selected early ballot envelopes.
Townhall reported that the ballot inspections are to commence on Tuesday.
Lake’s team praised the ruling. “I am thankful to Judge Peter Thompson and his team for the work they do, and we are confident that given the opportunity, we will expose this election for the sham it was,” Lake said in a statement.
Last week, she said that “if the process was illegitimate, then so are the results.” She has yet to concede to Hobbs, though state officials, including her own office, have certified her as the winner by about 17,000 votes.
Earlier this week, Lake provided an update to former White House strategist Steve Bannon about her lawsuit on his top-rated Real America’s Voice podcast.
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Lake believes her lawsuit will prevail and said she’s willing to “take it all the way to the Supreme Court” if necessary.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Steve Bannon on the War Room podcast. “We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting.”
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Bannon in an earlier interview regarding her case.
“We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting,” she said.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi of the District of Arizona rejected a Lake lawsuit earlier this month and then moved to fine her attorneys and those of Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem.
“Imposing sanctions, in this case, is not to ignore the importance of putting in place procedures to ensure that our elections are secure and reliable,” Tuchi wrote in his order. “It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward this end and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process.
“It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future,” Tuchi’s order noted further.
Lake’s team responded that Tuchi sounded like an “angry Obama appointee.”