NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard discussed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's stinging loss to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Morning Joe. Host Joe Scarborough reminded Hillyard of how mean Lake was to him, calling him a "bastard." Like Donald Trump, Lake vilified the media, constantly lashing out at reporters after she summoned them to an event. It's as if she set them up just to bully reporters.
Hillyard noted that Lake was "the latest one" of the election deniers to fall in Arizona, "making it a clean sweep" of those candidates.
He said that Donald Trump will now try to run on the same message that "all of those folks lost on."
Scarborough noted that people appeared to be "scared" of Lake, which he said hasn't happened since "Trump's emergence in 2015. (Cough...cough...Ron DeSantis)
Hillyard said that he has "covered Kari Lake for a better part of a year and a half here and finally flew in yesterday from Arizona here and essentially felt like I was covering Donald Trump's campaign of 2024 but in Arizona."
The NBC correspondent said that Lake "predicated the campaign on trying to sell the big lie and the conspiracy theories." He added that "when she wonders how she lost the race, look at it. This is the third election cycle in a row in which Arizonans rejected Trumpism."
"This is an individual who just last week called her Democratic opponent 'a pervert.' This is an individual who suggested there should be perp walks for elections officials, criminal charges for individuals who oversaw the Covid response in Arizona…She called the media the right hand of the devil, the scourge of the earth," Hillyard said. "If that doesn't sound like Donald Trump, I don't know what does."
Hillyard remarked on who Lake chose to campaign alongside -- Steve Bannon and Wendy Rogers.
Lake also disparaged the late Sen. John McCain, and that's a huge no-no in a state where he is still vastly popular. She just had to pull a Donald Trump on McCain, and she should have known better. The fact that she was unaware of how petty that would make her look means that she will never change, and she'll never go away. Just like Donald J. Trump, but in a skirt.
