One-on-one interview with Kari Lake

U.S. Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake joined Ted Simons on “Arizona Horizon” in a contentious interview to discuss some of the latest political issues and the circumstances regarding her campaign for the United States Senate. Arizona PBS invited Democratic candidate Ruben Gallego to debate Lake as a part of our “AZ Votes 2024” election coverage initiative, however, Gallego declined.

Arizona PBS remains committed to providing voters an opportunity to hear directly from candidates, so we have extended an invitation to Gallego to allow him to participate in his own one-on-one interview with Simons on “Arizona Horizon” in the same format as Lake’s.

Simons: You’re running for Senate, but it sounds like you think you’re the governor of Arizona and you won that race. I’m not just bringing this up to bring this up; Arizona voters want to know, should they send someone to Washington who is tilting at windmills here?

Lake: “I think you can look back at every interview I have done, and you can figure out where I stand on it. But here we are, what, five minutes into this, we haven’t talked about inflation,” Lake said. “You talk about me every week on this show. You never invited me on; you get your group of liberal journalists and propagandists. And you talk a lot about this election. And you can’t move on. I’m moving on. I’m running for U.S. Senate.”

Why are you running for the United States Senate, and how are you qualified?

“I think we need to get more citizens involved in politics and fewer politicians,” Lake said. She then commented about the ineffectiveness of previous “lifelong politicians.”

“I realized we got to get in there and fight for this seat; this is a really important seat,” Lake said. “Knowing how radical [Ruben Gallego’s] voting record is, I said, ‘Someone has got to jump in there, and stop this.’ He is too radical for Arizona to be in the U.S. Senate.”

Lake believes not having held prior political office is “top of my resume.”

“I’m sick of watching politicians kick the can down the road to huge problems. Ignore it, gloss over it, throw money at it, but never fix it. I want somebody to get things done,” Lake said.

I asked you to explain why you say the economy is falling apart and all these indices show that it’s not.

“Well, let’s look at some of the numbers when they said the job growth number. They threw a huge number out, every quarter another huge number, only to have to revise it downward by 818,000 jobs. Now you could call it a mistake, or you could say they’re lying. But the economy, the real economy of moms and dads out there trying to put food on the table, the people I’m talking to, I’ve talked to a lot more people in Arizona than you do, Ted, every day. I’ve talked to thousands of people a week in Arizona, and they’re struggling,” Lake said.

And you’re saying the economy is… I think your quote is…

“You know what? I have a great idea for you. When you retire here, I think you should go work for Kamala Harris because you’d be a great spokesperson for her policies. Her policies are disastrous. The people out in Arizona know it. This is almost comical to stand up and watch you push these policies that are crushing the American families,” Lake said.

For more, watch the full interview above.