Since Election Day, Lake has been telling her supporters that she’d won (despite never once taking the lead over Hobbs). This is not unusual incumbent secretaries of state run for re-election in the same systems they oversee all the time.) Lake went on right-wing media to claim, without proof, that the vast majority of the 60 polling places impacted were in “Republican parts of town.”Īs Arizona’s voting process dragged on, Lake and her allies continued to claim that it was a conflict of interest that Hobbs, who previously served as secretary of state overseeing Arizona’s elections, didn’t recuse herself to run for governor. So when Election Day rolled around and 20 percent of vote tabulation machines in Maricopa County briefly had problems reading ballots due to printer issues, conspiracy theorists pounced and claimed the “steal” was already in motion. On the campaign trail, Lake and other MAGA candidates in Arizona, like Blake Masters (who lost his bid for Senate) and Mark Finchem (who lost the race for secretary of state), routinely fanned the flames of those conspiracies, talking about how the election was “stolen” from Trump and regularly referencing 2,000 Mules. Philips’ conspiracy group, True the Vote, ginned up data that Dinesh D’Souza relied on in his debunked 2,000 Mules film to claim that Democrats were running a shady operation to stuff ballot drop boxes in areas that would have been key to Trump winning re-election, including in Maricopa County. Maricopa County has been ground zero for election conspiracies since 2020 (despite audits and lawsuits failing to turn up any evidence of fraud). “Wow! They just took the election away from Kari Lake.
“Too many mathematically improbable and in some cases impossible irregularities.” “I for one encourage not to concede,” wrote ex-Newsmax host John Cardillo to his 300,000 Twitter followers.
#CITIZEN PRESS 2000 MULES TV#
He also shared a meme featuring a picture of the former TV news star, with the text, “Kari Lake Won.” Other prominent right-wing influencers have also weighed in. Trump also weighed in on Lake’s behalf Monday night, posting to his app TruthSocial to imply that the election had been stolen from her. “Black bags are EVERYWHERE,” one Telegram user wrote.īen Bergquam from right-wing media channel Real America’s Voice seemed to allude to those photos on Bannon’s show Tuesday and asserted that Maricopa County poll workers should be forced to sign affidavits to attest to whether they saw people “mixing ballots, mixing boxes, putting them in bags.” On Telegram in particular, one conspiracy took over: screenshots from the live feed inside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that showed a pile of black duffle bags that extremists have said mean that election workers were up to no good. We will not allow her to certify a stolen election.” “It’s time,” said Gregg Philips, a former Texas official turned election conspiracy activist, on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. Now, Lake’s supporters, including prominent “Stop the Steal” activists, say they’re prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure their preferred candidate assumes the role of Arizona governor-and are looking to dig their claws into anything they can use to claim “foul play.” And at least one group of right-wing activists are already demanding a “do-over” of Arizona’s entire midterm election. In the days since the election, Lake repeatedly told her supporters that she had won, laying the groundwork to challenge a potential Hobbs’ victory as illegitimate.
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