Kari Lake Mocks DeSantis And Haley Campaigns: ‘Vanity Projects’
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) slammed two presidential candidates, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), for their “vanity project” campaigns on Friday — calling them a pair of chihuahuas “trying to nip” at former president and current GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s ankles.
Lake’s comments came in an interview with the Washington Examiner just days before the first primary contest, the January 15 Iowa caucuses. The Arizona Senate candidate, who is campaigning for Trump in Iowa, began by criticizing DeSantis and Haley for spending millions of dollars on advertisements in Iowa despite trailing far behind Trump in the polls.
“This is just vanity projects,” Lake said during a stop in Des Moines. “They know they can’t beat President Trump, and they’re trying to nip at his ankles. It’s like a little chihuahua dog that is [biting] at his ankles. It is such a waste of money and energy.”
Iowa is experiencing once-in-a-decade weather with blizzard conditions and below-zero temperatures, which has prompted concerns that the weather could hinder caucus attendance. However, Lake agreed with Trump’s argument that the weather would benefit his campaign, even though some have claimed that Trump’s victory would rely on more rural voters who could have a difficult time traveling to the caucus.
“These are people who would crawl across broken glass to vote for President Trump or, in this case, go out in a blizzard,” she said. “Maybe not every voter has been called, but every voter has had a chance to see President Trump speak. He’s been here many, many times and put on some high-energy events. I think he’s reached more voters than the other candidates combined because of his staying power and his ability to draw a big crowd.”
Upon being asked about the possibility of being chosen as Trump’s vice president, Lake chastised reporters for not covering more important issues like President Joe Biden’s border crisis and his foreign wars.
“I don’t think it’s all that important who he picks,” she said. “I’m not really wasting my time and energy thinking about it.”
Lake went on to call out Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) during the interview for her endorsement of DeSantis over Trump.
“I was disappointed in that because one of the things that I think Iowans value is loyalty,” Lake said of Reynolds. “President Trump is a forgiving guy, and he’ll welcome her support. Obviously, I’m sure he wishes he had it sooner, but I think, eventually, she’ll figure out the direction this country is going in.”
She also spoke out about her own state of Arizona, calling out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) for not yet announcing whether she would seek re-election this November in what would be a three-way race between Lake, Sinema and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). Sinema won her seat as a Democrat, but later switched parties to become an independent, and analysts have predicted that her inclusion in the November election would likely lead to a Republican winning the seat.
“If [Sinema] runs, I don’t believe she can win,” Lake said. “She’s going to have an uphill battle because she’s going to have to collect something like 45,000 or 47,000 signatures just to get her name on the ballot as an independent, so she’s going to have to announce relatively soon in order to get that going. That’s going to be a lot of work to do. We’ll see what happens. I’m prepared to run against her and Ruben or against just Ruben.”
