Kari Lake, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor, appeared with a Nazi sympathizer, anti-mask agitator and QAnon figures at campaign events, according to a new report.
Lake, a former television news journalist, is a Republican candidate in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election. CNN's KFILE revealed that Lake, who is politically aligned with Trump, publicly posed with and thanked a Nazi sympathizer who attended her campaign events.
According to the report, Lake posed for a photo and video with far-right personalities Ethan Schmidt-Crockett and Greyson Arnold during a campaign event in late August. The report further describes the details of the two men in question.
Lake Spotted with a Nazi Sympathizer
Schmidt-Crockett reportedly created the AntiMaskersClub. During this summer, he also harassed a store specializing in wigs for cancer patients as the customers were instructed to wear masks and follow Covid-19 protocols. Arnold, on the other hand is a Nazi sympathizer who has a history of making White nationalist, racist, antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements. He once described the German dictator "a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand."
According to a video, Schmidt-Crockett alongside Lake and Arnold said, "Anti-maskers club here with Kari Lake." Each one them said, "America First." After Arnold uploaded a photo of the trio on Twitter, Lake replied, "It was a pleasure to meet you, too."
What is Lake's Association with QAnon Figures?
Lake worked as an anchor for KSAZ-TV television station (Fox 10 Phoenix). She stepped down from her anchor role in March 2021. In her race for governor, she has time and again fueled conspiracy theories and made various false claims about the 2020 election. She falsely claimed President Joe Biden did not receive 81 million votes. She called for the Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs to be arrested on baseless allegations of criminality related to the 2020 election.
Earlier in October, Lake was caught having dinner with top QAnon operator named Ron Watkins. He calls himself CodeMonkeyZ. Watkins is reportedly a MAGA conspiracy theorist who disseminated the violent far-right QAnon conspiracy across social media. As reported by The Raw Story, Watkins shared the news on the social media platform Telegram.
"Just had dinner with Kari Lake, the next Governor of Arizona," Watkins wrote. "She inspires me with her tenacity and willingness to lead the fight to take back Arizona from do-nothing RINOs."
Lake has slammed the media for reporting on her QAnon connection. It would be interesting to see Lake's reaction on the newly released report by CNN and what kind of impact it brings on her election results.
