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Kari Lake Claims Supporters Were ‘Disenfranchised’ Because They Had to Endure the Same Conditions Black Voters Often Face
Republican Kari Lake, who lost her bid to become the next governor of Arizona, has yet to concede, but even before the race was called for Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake was crying fraud.
Lake, a top supporter of Donald Trump and his “Big Lie” falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen, has been crying fraud for over a year. She made clear months ago that the only outcome she would accept was being declared the winner.
Reporters have repeatedly asked Lake to show proof of her claims of 2020 election fraud, and she has repeatedly refused.
Now she’s calling this election “botched.”
“How do you certify an election that is this botched?” Lake asked on Fox News earlier this week.
She’s also posting accounts by her supporters complaining they had to wait in line for hours to vote, with some suggesting they don’t trust the process, with the underlying implication being that perhaps there was election fraud.
On Thursday NewsNation reported Lake “said she is collecting evidence about potential election fraud after she lost the 2022 governor’s race.”
CBS News adds that Lake “said Thursday she is assembling lawyers and collecting evidence of voters having trouble casting ballots on Election Day as she considers her next move.”
There are no national minimum standards for how elections should be run or what conditions are acceptable. Republicans have not only rejected attempts to put into place basic expectations, but have passed countless laws at the state level to make voting harder, especially for communities of color.
Now Lake is claiming that the very same conditions Black and minority communities have had to endure, often because white Republican lawmakers, governors, and Secretaries of State have funneled resources into white, affluent communities, is evidence of disenfranchisement.
Lake offered no opposition when actual efforts to disenfranchise Black and other minority voters were enacted across the country in red states — not to mention her own state of Arizona,
Outgoing Arizona GOP Governor Doug Ducey signed into law numerous bills passed by Republicans in the state legislature, including a highly-controvesial “proof of citizenship” bill that the U.S. Dept of Justice is calling a “textbook violation” of federal law and is now suing over. That law also mandates proof of address for newly-registered voters.
READ MORE: Watch: Reporter Schools Kari Lake as She’s Accused of Spreading Election Disinformation
Ducey also signed a law that effectively hobbles Arizona’s permanent early voting list, which ABC News reported last year is used by 75% to 80% of voters. Estimates range from 126,000 to 145,000 or more voters would be purged from the list.
So egregious is the law U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland issued a statement, saying it will “rob up to 200,000 Arizonans of the ability to vote by mail, which has been done successfully in Arizona for many years.”
“It will disproportionately affect minorities who do not vote regularly or those who move their place of residence,” Hoyer added, “and this legislation would also punish independents by making it harder for those not affiliated with a party to maintain their registration. The practical effect of this law will be, as its authors intend, to make it far harder for people to participate and vote.”
Lake never spoke out against actual efforts to disenfranchise voters, who face some of the exact same challenges her supporters claim to have encountered, challenges she now says is voter disenfranchisement.
Just look at these headlines from 2020:
“Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places” (NPR, October 17, 2020)
“Black and Latino Voters Face Longer Wait Times on Election Day” (Carnegie Corporation of New York, September 18, 2020)
“More than 10-hour wait and long lines as early voting starts in Georgia” (The Guardian, October 12, 2020)
“Florida Republicans targeted Black voters, justice department says in filing” (The Guardian, August 17, 2022)
Lake on Thursday recorded a video alleging voters were “disenfranchised” by her Democratic opponent, now governor-elect Katie Hobbs.
“The fox was guarding the henhouse and, because of that, voters have been disenfranchised,” Lake claimed.
Also on Thursday Lake posted this highly-edited video with sensational music depicting long voting lines, presumably for voting in Arizona — lines which are unacceptable, but not uncommon across many parts of the U.S., especially in areas of red states with large minority voting populations.
I’m so sorry they did this to us, Arizona. We will not let them get away with disenfranchising our Vote.
If you experienced issues on Election Day, please submit them at https://t.co/16ZEKvDz0L pic.twitter.com/ab1ipDGcUg
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 18, 2022
Lake also posted this video of a man who say he had to wait 90 minutes in line, and when he tried to vote there were problems with the tabulator machines, which were widely reported on Election Day in Maricopa County. But as the Republican officials in charge of Maricopa County elections said in a video quickly released that morning, they had a backup system in place, which this man says was suspicious to him.
That backup system was to place ballots in a box that would be transported to a different location to be counted — not unusual at all.
Offering zero evidence to question the election officials’ methods, Lake says this man “felt it meant they would throw his vote in the trash.”
It took Larry an hour & a half to get into his polling location
Inside, Larry’s ballot was repeatedly rejected by the tabulator. He was asked to put it in box three so it could be counted downtown.
He refused. Because he felt it meant they would throw his vote in the trash. pic.twitter.com/71mkQxbVzR
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
The Associated Press reports on Friday that Lake “pointed to long lines at some polling places that were exacerbated by problems with ballot printers at about a third of the vote centers in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state. She said the problems disenfranchised voters who couldn’t wait at the polls.”
“What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable,” Lake said.
“County election officials said that all ballots were counted and that voters could go to any polling place in the county, many of which had little to no line, with wait times posted online,” the AP notes, adding that about “17,000 ballots were not scanned at precinct-based vote counters and were instead placed in a collection box to be counted by more sophisticated machines at the county’s election headquarters.”
In another post, Lake is complaining about a two-hour wait to vote — again, too long, but very common across parts of the U.S.
It took Shannon over 2 hours to vote on Election Day.
Her first ballot showed faded ink & was rejected 8 times.
Shannon asked to spoil her ballot & was able to vote with a new ballot.
Lines were around the block.
How many people didn’t have two hours to spend at the polls? pic.twitter.com/4HgFo1DFKm
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
Lake says this man waited an hour, there were technical issues so his ballot was also put in box to be counted.
This is Alfred from Maricopa County.
Alfred waited for an hour to vote on Election Day at his local church.
When he finally went to scan his ballot, he was rejected by the tabulators.
Alfred was told to put his ballot in a blue box so it could be counted ‘later.’ pic.twitter.com/AYWY61lqAx
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
Placing paper ballots in boxes to be counted is how elections have been conducted literally for centuries.
Lake’s suggestions of fraud actually appears to be insufficient resources, GOP-created laws designed to make voting more difficult, and improper maintenance or testing of voting resources, like the tabulators.
She has offered no actual proof of fraud.
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
