Kari Lake blasts ‘fake news media’ for claiming she was mocking hammer attack on Paul Pelosi

Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, reacted angrily on Tuesday to accusations that she mocked the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi and said she was a victim of the “fake news media.”

The day before, she was roundly condemned when her rally crowd laughed at her account of the hammer attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

“Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in DC,” Lake said. “Apparently her house doesn’t have much protection.”

Right-wing websites and conspiracy theorists have tried to suggest that there is more to the attack than meets the eye.

A day after she sparked outrage, Lake told DailyMail.com that she was making a serious political point.

“I never took the attack lightly,” she said after a meeting in Chandler, Arizona.

“I was talking about our kids and why they don’t have better security. And I said our politicians have security and our athletes have security and we need security.

“Go back and watch the tape and don’t do any creative editing like the fake media do, and you’ll see what I said.”

Lake is slightly ahead of Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs with a week to go

The rally, outside a steakhouse in Chandler, Arizona, began with prayers

She also said she couldn’t do anything about her audience’s reaction.

“I can’t control people, friend. I can be responsible for myself,” she said. “I can’t be responsible for others.”

The latest polls suggest Lake — a regular on Arizona TV screens as a news anchor, now a candidate who has embraced Donald Trump’s election conspiracy theories — has taken the lead in the race for the governor’s mansion.

A Fox News poll on Tuesday showed Lake was one point ahead of Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs.

It comes as Republicans in the state and across the country have closed or pushed the gap with rivals.

She told a crowd of about 1,000 that she was on her way to win the election next Tuesday, while taunting the media for attacking her.

And there’s a reason that 100 percent of the mainstream media, 100 percent of the stories they write about me are negative and lies and filled with slander and defamation because they’re so scared I’ll come in there and do what I say I go do that, which is to secure the border and make Arizona safe again, for our families and our children,” she told a crowd outside a steakhouse, on a patch of astroturf lined with palm trees.

She repeated some of her wildest claims, including questioning the COVID-19 vaccine.

Lake was joined onstage by a surprise guest, Steve Bannon, former Trump White House chief strategist, who has been taking his radio show on the road in the run-up to the midterms.

‘I don’t even call it a vaccine because it’s experimental. It’s experimental. And it causes more health problems for our young people,” she said.

“First of all, the COVID injection, everyone I know who has had COVID has had the injection.

“Now I’m not a scientist, but everyone I know who has had a severe case of COVID has had the shock.”

And she repeatedly attacked the media, urging her supporters to turn around and take advantage.

“So guys, if you attack me, fake news, you attack the people of Arizona,” she said.

Lake’s campaign has embraced Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories

‘We don’t ask much. We want to know if our legal votes count and we’re going to get them with Governor Kari Lake.’

She brought a surprise guest onstage, introducing Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, who was convicted last month of contempt of Congress, as a “modern George Washington.”

He called on the crowd to send a message to the world.

“We don’t just need a win. We need a statement win,” he said.

“You’re sending a message, not just to Washington DC or Phoenix. You send a message to the whole world.’