“She wonders how she lost”: Reporter who spent 18 months covering Kari Lake unloads after defeat

When Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race was called for Democrat Katie Hobbs on Monday night, November 14, there was no shortage of gloating on Twitter. Far-right GOP nominee Kari Lake, according to her critics, went out of her way to be as insulting, condescending and mean-spirited as possible during her campaign. But in the end, she went down in defeat. In 2023, Hobbs, not Lake, will replace Republican Doug Ducey as Arizona governor.

The gloating came not only from Democrats like Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, but also, from some of Lake’s critics on the right, including conservative activist Meghan McCain and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. And the following morning, some more gloating came from NBC News’ Vaughan Hillyard during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Clearly, Lake’s defeat was something that a variety of liberals, centrists and conservatives savored, including “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough (a conservative ex-GOP congressman) and Mika Brzezinski (a liberal). And when Hillyard weighed in, he explained why so many people were delighted to by Lake’s defeat.

“Look, I’ve covered Kari Lake for the better part of the last year and half here,” Hillyard told Scarborough and Brzezinski from Palm Beach, Florida. “And I think it was perhaps fitting to be here across from Mar-a-Lago today…. I felt like I was covering Donald Trump’s campaign of 2024, but in Arizona, over the last year, she predicated her campaign on trying to sell the Big Lie — on trying to sell the conspiracy theories. When she wonders how she lost this race, look at it. This is the third election cycle in a row in which Arizonans rejected Trumpism.”

Hillyard continued, “In the final week of her campaign, who did she campaign alongside? She campaigned alongside Steve Bannon. She campaigned alongside one of the chief promotors of Pizzagate. She campaigned alongside an individual who promoted the notion of the war on White people. She campaigned alongside State Sen. Wendy Rogers, who earlier this year, was here in Florida speaking at a White nationalist conference — somebody who frequently spews antisemitism. This is somebody who, just last week, called her Democratic opponent a pervert. This is an individual who suggested there should be perp walks for election officials.”

Hillyard also noted that Lake “asserted that Cindy McCain wants to end America” and “called the media the right hand of the Devil.” And the reporter cited Lake as one of the many Trump-supported “election deniers” who lost in the 2022 midterms.

“And now,” Hillyard told Scarborough and Brzezinski, “Donald Trump is going to go and try to run on the very message that all of these folks lost on.”

Watch the video below or at this link.