Kari Lake targets 'bad ideas' from Biden, Ruben Gallego in calling for return of Trump

U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake urged voters to end the “Bidenvasion” at the nation’s border and “Bidenomics” that she said is enabled by her Democratic rival, Ruben Gallego.

Speaking for six minutes at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday, the front-runner for Arizona’s GOP nomination urged a return to the White House for former President Donald Trump to reverse the nation’s slide.

In doing so, Lake offered the kind of stark rhetoric common in her campaign while repeatedly casting herself as a “mama bear” and Gallego as President Joe Biden’s reliable rubber stamp.

“They’re full of bad ideas. Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election,” Lake said as some in the crowd booed.

“Gallego and the Democrats have handed over control of my state, Arizona’s border, to the drug cartels. Because of them, criminals and deadly drugs are pouring in, and our children are dying.”

Lake’s words distorted a Republican-led bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives that is expected to expire in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The measure put Democrats on the spot about cracking down on voter eligibility while invoking the threat of illegal immigration.

Hannah Goss, a Gallego campaign spokesperson, quickly pointed out that a CNN fact-checker characterized Lake's comments as a “significant false claim.”

"Kari Lake stood on stage and proved to everyone that she will say anything to get power — including lie to Arizonans to distract from her dangerous plan to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest," Goss said in a written statement.

Lake’s speech underscored the prominence she has in the party compared to Pinal County Mark Lamb, who is also running for the GOP nomination. She began her Senate run with Trump’s endorsement and picked most Republican senators’ backing since then, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

All the candidates are challenging for the seat held by the retiring U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Gallego and Lake parried about the proof-of-citizenship bill last week on social media.

“Of course only U.S. citizens should vote,” Gallego said last week in a statement. “But this bill isn’t about that, it’s about making it harder for Arizonans to vote, including married women, servicemembers, Native Arizonans, seniors and people with disabilities. This extreme bill’s only purpose is to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Arizonans, and I will not vote to take away the rights of Arizonans to stop something that is already illegal.”

Lake’s words played well with the GOP convention delegates inside Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum.

Jeremiah Cota, an Arizona delegate who lives in Gallego’s district, said Lake’s remarks on the border, drugs and crime resonated with him.“I’ve lived in Ruben’s district since 2017, and I can say things have gotten worse,” he said. ”It’s like we have no voice. Our frustrations just go into the dumpster and never get addressed.”“She’s exciting. I think that she’s the shake-up we needed in our state.”

A comment on the border drew resounding chants to “Build A Wall” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Lake said the hardest thing for her on the campaign trail is talking to those who have lost family members to fentanyl.

“We are losing a generation of young people to this fentanyl crisis, and it’s got to stop,” Lake said. “The Grand Canyon State has become the fentanyl state, and it’s not OK with this mom. I’m not OK with that.”

Lake said the problems America faces are “huge,” but the solution is simple: build the border wall favored by Trump, put “Bidenomics to the curb, and bring back MAGAnomics.”

She said children are receiving “psychological abuse they’re inflicting on our children” through indoctrination in schools.

Lake, a former newscaster with Fox 10 in Phoenix, started her speech by dispensing with niceties and returning to a favorite subject: attacking the media.

“I don’t welcome everybody in this meeting, in this room. The guys up in the fake news, frankly, you guys up there in the fake news have worn out your welcome,” she said to rising cheers. “You have spent the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his amazing, patriotic supporters.

“Actually, they lie about everything. Joe Biden’s health, the economy, the (Hunter Biden) laptop, the border. I could go on and on and on.”

Lake’s remarks were clustered within a block of Republican Senate candidates.

The other speakers range from West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who is widely regarded as a cinch to win the seat held by the retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to Hung Cao, the GOP nominee in Virginia who is regarded as likely to lose to incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

For its part, the Gallego campaign focused on Lake’s election denialism in a digital ad released Tuesday ahead of her speech. The 30-second ad is a collection of video clips in which Lake repeatedly claims to be “the duly elected governor of Arizona.”

It focuses on one of the central concerns that the NRSC expressed to her months before she formally entered the Senate race in October. The NRSC’s chair, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., privately urged Lake to drop the matter at that time, sources familiar with those discussions told The Arizona Republic.

Days before she entered the race, Daines publicly acknowledged the same concern in an interview with CNN.

“I think one thing we’ve learned from 2022 is voters do not want to hear about grievances from the past,” he said. “I think it’s just going to be important for her to look to the future and not so much the past.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake targets 'bad ideas' from Biden, Ruben Gallego in call for Trump