Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake reacted Sunday to her campaign headquarters receiving “suspicious” items in the mail, vowing to track down the person responsible.
Lake’s staffers were reportedly exposed to a white powdery substance found in packages sent to her office.
Speaking to reporters after a campaign event in Queen Creek, Arizona, Sunday evening, Lake was asked about the packages and the health of the staffers who were exposed.
“I have been so busy campaigning. This happened. I was not in the office. One of our wonderful staffers, a couple of them, were actually exposed,” Lake said. “And so far they’re doing okay. We’re monitoring them, and we want to make sure that everything’s okay.”
Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake reacted Sunday to her campaign headquarters receiving “suspicious” items in the mail, vowing to find answers about who is responsible. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Lake explained that the substance was originally going to be sent to Quantico in Virginia for testing, but it was instead sent to a closer lab.
“So we’re going to find out what it was,” she said.
The former TV news anchor explained that this was not the first instance in which her campaign has been targeted.
“But listen, we’re in dangerous times,” she said. “This is not the first time we’ve been threatened. I’ve been threatened many times. Our tires have been slashed. We’ve had screws drilled into our tires so that our tires would blow out while we’re on the road. We are living in dangerous times, and that’s why we need to elect somebody who’s strong and a fighter and not a coward. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I really don’t want to get too far ahead of it.”
Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, explained that this was not the first instance in which her campaign has been targeted. (Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The Phoenix Police Department previously told Fox News Digital that officers responded to a “found property call at an office building.”
“When officers arrived, they learned there were suspicious items located inside the mail,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Phil Krynsky said. “Additional resources responded to collect the items and secure the area. There have been no reports of injury and the investigation remains active.”
This comes as the latest instance of reported crimes targeting lawmakers, political candidates and their families in recent months.
New York GOP Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin was attacked at a campaign event in July by a man wielding a sharp object, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was hospitalized two weeks ago after a man who broke into their San Francisco home hit him with a hammer and Arizona Democrat gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’ campaign headquarters in Phoenix was broken into last week.
Lake’s staffers were reportedly exposed to a white powdery substance found in packages sent to her office. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Lake and Hobbs are facing off in the race for Arizona governor on Tuesday.
A vocal critic of the mainstream press, Lake also attributed the rise in political polarization to the media during her remarks to reporters Sunday night.
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“We are in such polarized times and this is one of the reasons I walked away from the fake news media because I realized that the media is a big part of it, pitting people against one another. You guys want us like this? And I believe that Americans and Arizonans are much more aligned on the issues than you lead us to believe,” Lake said.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Kelly O’Grady contributed to this report.
