Kari Lake travels to Mar-a-Lago after election loss
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Failed Republican gubernatorial candidate from Arizona Kari Lake visited former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Thursday as she hired lawyers to contest her election loss.
That reports the Washington Post that Lake received a standing ovation when she showed up to a luncheon hosted by The America First Policy Institute, an advocacy group founded by former Trump advisers.
The America First Policy Institute held a “Gala and Experience” Thursday and Friday at Trump’s home and club in Palm Beach, according to The Post.
In a video posted online of comments Lake made Thursday night at Mar-a-Lago, she said “our elections are a circus run by clowns.”
“They had to do everything they could to stop us – harvest ballots – they had to shut down the machines on Election Day. But we know their tricks. And they think they can slow down and pour cold water on a movement. It’s not possible folks. You can’t stop the American spirit,” she said. “You can’t stop the Founding Fathers and the blood we have in us.”
She promised to fight on.
Lake then turned her attention to Trump, who was sitting in the front row without a tie.
“I don’t know what my future holds other than fighting for this country, but I will do everything I can to make sure this man gets back in the White House – we need him more than ever.” said Meer.
Just two days earlier, the club’s glitzy ballroom was where Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign.
Entering the November midterms, Lake looked like one of the brightest rising stars of the MAGA movement — a former television host echoing Trump’s “big lie.”
She was even mentioned as a potential 2024 VP pick.
But now her political future is at stake.
Failed Republican gubernatorial nominee from Arizona Kari Lake visited former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Thursday. She released a video on Thursday saying she had put together “the best and brightest legal team” to contest her election loss
Former President Donald Trump used the ornate ballroom at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night to launch his 2024 presidential campaign. The Florida club is holding a two-day Gala and Experience for the America First Policy Institute
Like Trump, Lake has not caved to Democrat Katie Hobbs, signaling long before Election Day that she may not fulfill that formality.
“Rest assured, I have assembled the best and brightest legal team and we are exploring every opportunity to right the many wrongs committed over the past week,” Lake said in a 2 1/2 minute video released Thursday — her most extensive public comments since losing the election.
“I’m doing everything I can to right these wrongs,” she said.
She pointed to long lines at some polling places exacerbated by problems with ballot printers at about a third of polling places 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,” she said.
County election officials said all ballots had been counted and voters could go to any polling station in the county, many of which had little to no line, with wait times posted online.
Election officials traced the problems to a printer setup that sometimes resulted in ballots printing too light to be read by the tabulators on site.
They said they used the same settings in the August primary and for pre-election testing and there were no widespread problems.
About 17,000 ballots were not scanned at county polling stations, but were instead placed in a collection box to be counted by more sophisticated machines at county election headquarters.
The collection box has become known as ‘box three’.
Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, has blamed state GOP chairman Kelli Ward and other prominent Republicans for causing delays and long lines as they told their supporters not to use box three.
“This team, we’ve taken our responsibility in this,” Gates said Monday. “But I am not willing to take responsibility for problems caused by others. And it is clear to me that those lines were longer because leaders of one political party were spreading disinformation.’
At least one voter Lake emphasized in an online video Thursday that he didn’t trust putting his ballot in box three, “because it’s likely to end up in the trash,” and said he waited in line again to cast another ballot.
Republicans asked a judge to extend polling hours because of the problems.
The judge refused, saying they had not provided evidence that anyone had been disenfranchised.
Democrats voted overwhelmingly from ballots received in the mail.
In-person Election Day votes strongly favored the GOP because Lake and other prominent Republicans had argued it was safer, which election experts dispute.
Trump has insisted that voting should only take place on Election Day using paper ballots, something he included in his address for the Tuesday night 2024 presidential announcement.
Lake has said little since The Associated Press and other news organizations called the race for Hobbs on Monday.
Late on Wednesday, she posted a video with snippets of the campaign trail that read “I won’t back down.”
Her video Thursday said Hobbs, who is currently Secretary of State, should have withdrawn from any role in the election.
The secretary of state drafts election procedures and certifies equipment, but her office does not count ballots, a task performed by the state’s 15 counties.