Kari Lake’s baseless campaign to overturn her 2022 loss in Arizona’s governor’s race now has a new target: members of her own party.
In a tweet Friday afternoon, Lake—who has insisted she won her election despite numerous failed attempts in court to overturn the result—claimed a coalition of Democrats and “Republicans in name only” colluded to manipulate the final result in favor of sitting Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who defeated Lake by roughly half a point.
“The Red Wave happened in AZ,” tweeted Lake, who has consistently teased “shocking” proof of fraud that has so far failed to deliver. “Crooked Dems and RINOs rigged our Elections. EVERYONE knows Arizonans did NOT vote for Cartel-controlled goons like Hobbs, Fontes & Mayes. Frauds stole Arizona’s state Government.”
The Red Wave happened in AZ. Crooked Dems and RINOs rigged our Elections.
EVERYONE knows Arizonans did NOT vote for Cartel-controlled goons like Hobbs, Fontes & Mayes.
Frauds stole Arizona’s state Government. https://t.co/vuuhp9U45S
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 20, 2023
Her evidence? A report detailing the “real” state-level results of a number of key battleground states in the 2020 presidential election authored by noted conspiracy theorist Greg Rubini, a so-called intelligence expert on social media whom Buzzfeed News reported in 2020 to be “just a random Italian guy.”
Rubini, nonetheless, has risen up in the ranks of the right-wing social media ecosystem thanks to explosive, and often evidence-free, claims about COVID-19 and D.C. politics that made him a favorite of the QAnon crowd at the height of the pandemic.
Newsweek has reached out to Lake’s team for comment.
According to Rubini, former President Donald Trump—who narrowly lost Arizona to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 11,000 votes—actually dominated the result there by more than 13 points, a fact he discovered by reverse engineering the results “using the scientific method.”
His Twitter thread does not explain how he did it, nor does it compensate for the fact Arizona and other swing states mentioned in his report—such as Pennsylvania and Georgia—have been growing increasingly competitive in recent years.
He also has a legacy of not explaining how he reaches his conclusions. According to a report by the Associated Press after his account was suspended from Twitter for repeated violations of the website’s policies, a social media user asked Rubini, “Where and what is your proof?” to which Rubini responded, “And my question is: why should I give it to you?”
On Twitter this week, he encouraged social media users to buy his self-published 89-page book from his website for $12 per copy.
“Don’t complain that I cannot give them out for free,” he wrote in the thread Lake cited. “Until today I recovered just $1,300 from the sales. Which means I am still $58,700 in the red.”
As far as blaming “RINOs” for her loss, Lake is relying on her old playbook. In an appearance last week with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Lake—who is now reportedly weighing a run for U.S. Senate in 2024—insisted the “RINO side of the party” was “panicked,” and that her movement was “alive and well.”
“When you’re in politics, you are working for the people. You’re not the boss; the people are the boss, and we need to get back to that,” Lake told Kirk. “And right now, we’re watching this RINO class of our party try to go into all of these small legislative districts and claw back control. And I want the grassroots to know: Don’t give them a damn inch.”
Lake, notably, was the first Republican to lose a governor’s race in Arizona since 2004. She is currently appealing her most recent court loss.
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