Since suffering a clear and unequivocal defeat in the Arizona gubernatorial election, Kari Lake has traveled across the country posing like a conquering hero.

As a candidate, the former Fox TV anchorwoman was fully involved in former President Trump and his big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Perhaps her brazen duplicity cost her Lake in November’s gubernatorial election.

But in characteristic fashion, she refuses to admit defeat and has been kicked out of court before filing lawsuits and widely spreading false allegations about voter fraud and other conspiratorial flimsy practices.

Her actions are immoral and unoriginal. Now she’s parroting Trump, as Lake reads from her TelePrompTer.

Fortunately, she did not stand for election.

In the future, she may face legal repercussions.

Arizona’s top election administrator, Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer, filed a defamation lawsuit last week against a fellow Republican, alleging that Lake’s outright lies led to the loss of friends and lifelong relationships. Her malicious agitation also led to her death threats and harassment of him and his wife.

“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than take a new job, [Lake] “Trying to undermine confidence in our election and mobilizing millions of her supporters against me,” Richer wrote in the Arizona Republic. “Her defamatory allegations have resulted in violent rants and other disastrous consequences.”

Lake lost in 2022 by more than 17,000 votes. Not much, considering over 2.5 million votes were cast. But the margins weren’t exactly thin.

she fake farago These included allegations that Richer manipulated the printing of election ballots and “inserted” 300,000 false votes into the final tally to prevent the victory of Republican candidates, including Lake. ing. (In last year’s midterm elections, Arizona became a base for a frontal assault on democracy, with a number of candidates statewide who refused to vote, but luckily they all lost.)

Lake’s false allegations were repeated many times, litigation documents, At political rallies, podcasts, and social media. Richer is seeking unspecified monetary damages, along with a court order finding Lake’s statements to be false and removing them.

Not surprisingly, she responded on Twitter.

“I’m exposing massive election corruption and this idiot is suing me. He wants America to shut up. Trump won a landslide, and so did I.” ” Lake wrote, mimicking the punctuation of the former president’s hostage memo.

Imitation is not just flattery. These days, that’s the sum of Lake’s existence.

Of course she included a link asking for money. Friction never stops.

It’s clear that Lake is working on it, but Leaning exercise campaign If Trump wins the 2024 Republican nomination, he will be the vice-presidential nominee. She’s been a regular at Mar-a-Lago lately, and although Lake hasn’t shown up yet at her mealtime, her sandwich board says “PICK ME!!!” It’s still relatively early in the campaign season.

But self-deprecation can be pathetic. Lake’s performance is more than just sad. It is dangerous, and the barrage of baseless attacks further undermines confidence in the democratic system under threat. As Richer put it in the Arizona Republic, she is “adding gasoline to the fire of electoral deception.”

Even more irresponsibly, Mr. Lake had just called for armed violence, as if January 6 wasn’t enough, after Mr. Trump was indicted for handling classified documents.

Lake told a crowd of Trump worshipers in Georgia, “If you want to get to President Trump, you have to go through me,” and millions of Americans are “just like me,” saying: added. We are cardholder NRA members. ”

“It’s not a threat,” Lake said after making the threat. “It’s a public service announcement.”

The hurdles to winning a defamation lawsuit are naturally high. But it is not insurmountable.

Witness the $787.5 million spit out by FOX News to settle a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit was plastered with false allegations that the company’s equipment swiped votes from Trump to Joe Biden, undermining the former president’s re-election.

The discovery process was revealing, exposing the deceptiveness of figures like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the then-fired Tucker Carlson.

No one knows when or if Lake will be questioned under oath.

Note the pomp and bombast of Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and other former presidents’ lying minions in front of audiences, as opposed to their cowardice when testifying under perjury. is impressive.

Richer may not win a defamation lawsuit against Lake.

But if it stops other celebrities from making a big fuss about faked election fraud, if they know better, it would have served a worthy purpose.