“Kari Lake had a chance to win over moderates and independents in the half-hour interview on PBS show. And blew it.”

ARIZONA -– Last night (Oct 3rd) during a thirty minute interview with Arizona PBS, Kari Lake was “cantankerous, contentious, combative,” showing why Lake “has succeeded in boosting the number of Arizonans who don’t like her by 9 points.”

During the interview, Lake refused to admit that she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race, said “I never want to move on” from her court cases to overturn the 2022 election, said the host had a “very short memory,” and “snapped” at him, saying “I have a great idea for you. When you retire here, you should go work for Kamala Harris.”

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Arizona Republic Opinion: Kari Lake’s Horizon interview is a win … for Ruben Gallego

By: Laurie Roberts

October 4th, 2024

Key Points:

• Kari Lake put on a seminar on Thursday night in her interview on KAET’s Horizon.

• I call it: How to Lose an Election in 30 Minutes or Less.

• Lake was gifted with a half-hour interview on Arizona Horizon.

• The MAGA firebrand is beloved on conservative sites like FOX News and Right Side Broadcasting Network — the places where her peeps go for news.

• Arizona’s PBS station, meanwhile, is watched by the sort of voters she desperately needs to win over.

• That is, if she really wants to pull off an upset in the fast approaching election — one in which the opportunities to be seen by persuadable voters are dwindling down to just a precious few.

• Yet there she was on Thursday evening, swinging her rhetorical sledgehammer with giddy abandon as an audience likely filled with McCain moderates and independents looked on.

• When Horizon’s highly regarded host, Ted Simons, cited data pointing to a strong economy after Lake railed on about inflation and such?

• “I have a great idea for you,” Lake snapped. “When you retire here, you should go work for Kamala Harris.”

• When Simons pushed her for an answer after she sidestepped questions about the 2022 governor’s election, a race she still is in court fighting to overturn?

• “I think you’re pushing back,” Lake retorted.

• It was vintage Lake: cantankerous contentious, combative.

• And, for a majority of voters, unlikable.

• After two years of virtual nonstop campaigning, Lake has succeeded in boosting the number of Arizonans who don’t like her by 9 points.

• From 42% in September 2022, shortly after she drove her celebrated stake into the heart of the “McCain machine” while running for governor, to 51% now, according to a recent Marist Poll…

• Several Republican operatives have told me there’s no hope for Lake, who clearly isn’t listening to the polls or to good advice.

• “I don’t think there’s enough money and time for Lake to rehabilitate her image,” Republican consultant Tyler Montague said last week.

• Thursday evening was a chance to at least try. Instead, Lake resorted to taking cheap shots at Gallego and sparring with the always affable Simons.

• When Simons noted that Lake is down in the polls and wondered whether her confrontational style was a turnoff to voters?

• “I’m sorry if my personality turns you off, Ted,” Lake sniped. “I’m not trying to turn you on.”

• Or any other voter, it seems.

• Not even a crash course at charm school can help her now.