After earning an endorsement from the National Republican Senatorial Committee at the beginning of the year, Kari Lake is trying to appear less insane to Arizonans who have had the unfortunate experience of being exposed to her politics since 2020.
Last week the Republican Senate candidate tried to moderate her stance on abortion in an interview with NBC News. This is, of course, the same candidate who has called abortion “the ultimate sin,” actively helped Republicans in Ohio try to block the passage of a constitutional amendment codifying the right to an abortion, pushed for the passage of a “carbon copy” of Texas’ six-week ban in Arizona and, as recently as November, said she supports Arizona’s extreme, very old ban that is currently on hold as the courts hear challenges to it.
Lake told NBC News last week that she thinks Arizona will ultimately allow abortions up to 24 weeks, called the state’s 15-week ban “a good law” and completely backtracked on her support for the territorial-era ban that she once called “a great law.”
“It’s probably going to be the 15th week or whatever is in this ballot initiative. … I trust the people of Arizona to vote on this, if that’s what happens, and get this right,” Lake told NBC News before saying the 15-week ban is “something that Americans can get behind because it gives people options, gives women options, and makes sure that there are carveouts.”
“The vast majority of Americans and Arizonans hold the view that abortion should be legal and that late-term abortion should not be legal,” she added, “with exceptions for rape, incest and obviously the health of a mother.”
Her pivot to the general has continued this week. Over the weekend, the election-denying conspiracy theorist, who ran her entire gubernatorial bid in 2022 on the back of her belief that the 2020 election was stolen and then claimed that the 2022 race was rigged, walked back some of her past remarks.
During an interview on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday,” Lake refused to answer questions about whether former Vice President Mike Pence should’ve certified the election — a position she has not previously been shy about.
“If you had been vice president, would you have certified the 2020 election result?” CNN’s Melanie Zanona asked.
“These are crazy … this is like a hypothetical going forward, and a hypothetical going backward,” Lake said. “I’m not going to entertain that.”
She also walked back her past claims that Arizona’s governors race was stolen from her, suggesting instead that there were “major problems.” She did, for her part, stick with her story on the 2020 election, however.
“2020 election, I think it was a rigged election,” she said. “I believe it was.”
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