Kari Lake Tells Us How She’s Turned the Tables on the Biased Media

BUCK: As promised, we got Kari Lake with us now. Kari, I first after… we’ve had you on a few times, got to bring you back and let you know that Clay, who, as you are well aware, is an enormous sports fan, says of those running for office for first time in this election cycle, you would be his not just first round draft pick – number one draft pick in the Clay Travis political draft.

LAKE: (laughing)

BUCK: So, this is a tremendous honor. We might have to send you a plaque or something, but we wanted to know what it is at this stage of the race. Bring us in on some of these dynamics, because we can’t look at your debate clips because Katie Hobbs won’t debate you.

LAKE: We’re giving her one more shot on Sunday, where we finally found some honest arbiter who will run our debate. And of course, she’s chickened out, but we’re going to give her one last chance. I ask the clean elections folks, “Invite her one more time. Give her one more chance to show a little respect to the people of Arizona.” So, on Sunday, we’re doing it. It might just be a solo debate, I guess, with me and the moderator, but maybe she’ll finally grow a spine and show up.

CLAY: Kari, you would be my number one pick and here’s why. And I’m telling people out there, first of all, you’re going to win. And we want everybody listening to us in Arizona to make sure they go vote for you, but you’re going to win and you are smoking Katie Hobbs all over the state. And here’s what I think you’re doing so well. You correctly diagnosed that the media hates you, right? They hate Buck and I, by and large, as well. And so, you record every interaction you have with them.

So, you are putting them on the spot like they have traditionally tried to put you on the spot and you’re everywhere. You’re answering more questions than anyone, but you have the receipts and you just present it to the people of Arizona. And I’ve seen you say it over and over again. Look, you’re basically on a job interview every time you go out. I just think it’s a fabulously run campaign. When and how did you have the idea to begin to chronicle every interaction that you had with the media? And how have you found voters to respond to that?

LAKE: You know, at first, I wasn’t going to even talk to the local media. We have the most biased media in the whole country here in Arizona. And I thought I’m just going to avoid them at all costs. And then I did a quick five-minute interview right when I started with a reporter, and it was just such a hit job. And my husband happened to record it on Zoom and we put it out and it got such excitement from people because they went, okay, we caught them, we caught the media doing what they do and Kari showed us.

And after that I thought, you know, I should do this more often because I can go toe-to-toe with these guys. First of all, they’re not that smart. Most of them out…there are a few smart ones, but for the most part, they’re not that smart and they’re pushing an agenda. So, we just started taking our camera and a microphone on the road, and we record them while they’re recording me.

And you know what they usually get away with, Clay and Buck, is they would ask a loaded question full of bias. You know, they’re social activists. And then when they get it back to the station, they cut their question, their smart aleck question out, and they put just your response. Well, they’re not able to do that when we’re recording them. We show people how the sausage is made. We show how the media, even the ones that they don’t think are biased, are actually asking very biased leading questions and it’s been really fun.

It’s interesting, though, you know, we do this, we have huge press throngs that are covering us from all over the world. We have Australian news, you know, news from Great Britain. We had Swiss news here yesterday, news from Japan following our race because the whole world’s kind of watching our race. And an interesting thing happened the other night. Two nights ago, when I was at the big, huge rally we did with Tulsi Gabbard, the press assembly, it was a massive crowd and not one of them asked a stupid, leading, loaded, biased question.

BUCK: This is what I was going to ask you. I was going to say, Kari, have you had people that have realized, “Wait, wait, hold on a second, we could actually just ask the candidate questions instead of attacking her.” So, that is occurring in response to your point.

LAKE: It happened two nights ago. I was, I walked away and I said, “Oh, my gosh, are we actually training these people to be real journalists or are they so afraid they’re going to get embarrassed when a million people see one of our clips and they get called out really by the world realizing that they’re biased”? So, I hope that we can train them to be real journalists because that’s what the people want. Truth.

BUCK: Speaking to Kari Lake right now, she’s running in Arizona. I’m wondering, you know, do you come across at this stage still, people who are saying, look, “You know, I voted for Biden, but I’m on the fence at this point.” And they want you to make a final pitch, because I honestly, I sit here with Clay.

We talk about this day in and day out. If anyone is even a little bit persuadable, it seems hard to believe that at this phase, after two years of so much Democrat failure, they wouldn’t be persuaded. I’m wondering, are you still getting people on the fence come up to you? And what is it that they want you to address for them at this point? Maybe just to clarify, you know, maybe they’re just right there but this is the last five yards that would make them finally cast their vote for you.

LAKE: Well, every single day we’re getting people who say, “I’m a Democrat and you’re the first Republican I’ve ever cast a vote for,” or “I voted for Joe Biden and I see it’s not working out.” And I don’t want people out there to feel like they’re not welcome in the Republican Party. If you’re waking up today, yesterday, one minute from now that Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, it’s not working out. Their dead-end destructive policies are destroying this country. You’re welcome in the Republican Party.

We want to grow this party into the biggest political party and the most inclusive that we’ve ever seen in this country. That’s how you win elections. That’s how you get your policies enacted and put forward. So, you know what I’m most worried about and the group that I’m seeing come over the most are older Arizonans. They’re approaching their retirement or their new into retirement.

And they’re telling me, “Oh, my gosh, I voted for Biden. I’ve watched a third of my retirement savings disappear in nine months. I can’t afford this anymore. I’m worried I won’t make it through retirement. I’ll have to go back to work.” And I feel for the older folks that are faced with that dilemma. Some of them say, “I can’t work, I’ve gotten too old. My health isn’t where it used to be. I don’t know what I’m going to do, how I’m going to make ends meet in a Biden economy.” They’re the ones who are waking up the fastest, I believe.

CLAY: Kari, I’ve got three kids. Other people out there that are fired up, moms and dads, about this covid shot requirement. I’m sure that you’ve seen in the last hour or so, the CDC voted 15 to nothing to try to include the covid shot as a part of the immunization schedule, or at least to recommend it to many states. And so, I think I probably know your answer, but I think it’s an important one that a lot of people in Arizona would want to hear, particularly the parents. You’re not going to mandate the covid shot for kids to be able to attend public schools, right?

LAKE: No, absolutely not. When I heard this a couple of nights ago, I was just…you know, first of all, these are unelected bureaucrats in the CDC and they’re trying to control our lives. And we’re going to start pushing back against these federal agencies that have no power over us. They think they do. They’re pushing regulations that have not been passed by our lawmakers. These are regulations coming from agencies full of unelected bureaucrats, lifetime bureaucrats, unfortunately. And I think we’re free to push back.

First of all, if anybody in Arizona, we will not make your children guinea pigs to a shot that is not proven, that actually has caused injury to people. We’re seeing it’s not effective. We see people who get the shot and they’re getting covid faster rates than people who didn’t get the shot. And we’re not going to force this on our children. And I want the people of Arizona and the moms and dads out there to know I will step in the way and not allow that to happen.

Your kids can go to school. They don’t have to be forced into this shot. And we’re going to start putting the rights back where they belong with parents. And so, I’m actually looking forward to taking on the federal government. This last Supreme Court session, we had a huge case that largely got ignored, called EPA versus West Virginia.

And the Supreme Court cracked open the door for us to take on and battle back against some of these agencies who are trying to make our lives miserable, destroy our economies and our health. And they’re in there pushing all of this from Washington, D.C. And we’re going to kick that door wide open and start pushing back against EPA, Department of Education, the ATF, all of these agencies that are pushing regulations without laws that are backing those regulations.

BUCK: Kari, as working folks go, it’s so important not just that you win, but that you win by a large enough margin to show everybody that there is some sanity and there is some hope for the folks of Arizona. Where can they go in these last few weeks?

LAKE: Thank you. Thanks for asking, KariLake.com. K-A-R-I-L-A-K-E.com. You can go there and see where I stand on the issues. Sign up for emails, make a donation if you want. But if you live in Arizona, call your friends. I know you’re probably going to vote already if you listen to this show. Make sure you’re bringing friends out, make sure they’re voting, they’ve got a plan to vote. We have to win by a mile to eke out a one inch when we still don’t have a system that’s working properly.

We got Katie Hobbs, my incompetent opponent, is still running our elections. We called for her to recuse herself a year ago, but she hasn’t done that. And we just found out this week, yesterday, I think it was, that she’s already screwed up with putting out thousands of bad ballots already, sending them to the wrong people, the wrong type of ballots. And of course, the fake news ran cover for her rather than calling her out in a serious manner. So, we’re already seeing some issues, but we’re going to go out and vote like our lives, depend on it and show up in huge numbers on Election Day and make sure we win this.

BUCK: Kari Lake. Kari, thank you.

CLAY: Kari, fantastic stuff. We’re going to help you as much as we can.