ICYMI: NRSC endorses Kari Lake the uniter. Has anyone in Arizona actually seen this Lake? [Arizona Republic Opinion]

ARIZONA - Today, Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts says that "apparently, the view from Palm Beach and D.C. is different than the view here" because "here in Arizona, there is still a question about how Lake can win over those all-important moderate Republicans and independents she trashed."

Arizona Republic reporter Ron Hansen, wrote this remindertoday: "While Lake claimed to unite Republicans, it overlooks the spectacle of her getting booed recently at the Arizona Republican Party annual meeting just days after she effectively toppled the party chair, Jeff DeWit, with the release of a secret recording from last year in which he relayed a message that people wanted her to stay out of the Senate race."

Read more about why Arizonans know Kari Lake is no "uniter:"

Arizona Republic Opinion: NRSC endorses Kari Lake the uniter. Has anyone in Arizona actually seen this Lake?

By Laurie Roberts

February 13th, 2024

Key Points:

• Kari Lake's apparently gone mainstream. After months of trying, Arizona's MAGA queen has finally landed the coveted endorsement of the D.C. swamp.

• Specifically, the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

• This means the senators either believe she has retired her election conspiracy schtick or somebody high up in Republican ranks was caught on one of her secret tapes.

• Yeah, I'm going with the tape thing.

• Lake for months has been courting the NRSC, only to be advised to move on from the stolen election conspiracy theories that are her signature grievance.

• And she did. For about two minutes.

• Lake mounted a charm offensive hoping to win over Karrin Taylor Robson, whom she savaged during the 2022 gubernatorial election, and those McCain supporters who have been walking around for the last 18 months with Lake's celebrated stake in their hearts.

• Then she went running back to court in November, asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to invalidate the results of the 2022 election and order a revote, claiming to have new evidence of sabotage.

• Despite her refusal - or inability - to pivot, Lake has landed the NRSC seal of approval.

• If you're from Arizona you might not even recognize the Kari Lake they describe.

• Politico, quoting sources, notes that Lake spent last weekend at NRSC's winter meeting in Palm Beach, impressing senators and key donors.

• "This year, Lake has scaled back her focus on the legitimacy of past elections, though she has not avoided that or other conspiracies entirely. And she has made concerted steps to broker a detente with major players in the Arizona GOP," reported Politico, which broke the story of NRSC endorsement…

• Is this unifier the same Lake whose secret tapes recently led to the downfall of now-ex state GOP Chairman Jeff DeWit, the MAGA-despised party official who was trying to find a way to unify the party?

• Is this diplomat the same Lake who has refused to publicly apologize for calling Robson a gold digger, former Gov. Doug Ducey a cartel doormat and former Rep. Matt Salmon a protector of pedophile rapists?

• "Short of an engraved apology, I wouldn't consider helping her with anything," Salmon told the Washington Post in December. "She employs the politics of personal destruction, and she'll say anything - the most vile things in the world - to get ahead. And I'm sorry, I just can't forget that."

• Is this the same Lake who just a month ago offered the mother lode of conspiracy theories, revealing that "they" unleashed COVID-19 in order to stop Donald Trump from getting reelected?

• Apparently, the view from Palm Beach and D.C. is different than the view here…

• Here in Arizona, there is still a question about how Lake can win over those all-important moderate Republicans and independents she trashed. The ones who in recent years have rejected MAGA candidates, turning over both Senate seats and all major state offices to Democrats.

• "It's like she successfully described to the NRSC what she needs to do," Montague told me. "But she sure hasn't actually done it yet from where I sit."…

• Kari Lake? The same Lake who, upon winning her 2022 primary called for the GOP to unite behind her then three days later boasted that she "drove a stake through the McCain machine?"

• OK, I'll quit laughing in a minute.

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