Arizona gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake heralded CNN host Don Lemon’s grilling of her rival Katie Hobbs over her decision to shun a debate.
During the exchange, Hobbs defended her position that debating Lake risks amplifying her 2020 “election denialism” and suggested that it is too late to reverse course with less than a week before the midterm elections. Lake took a victory lap over the tense exchange on Twitter.
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“Big yikes. Even @donlemon is calling @katiehobbs out! Bless her heart,” Lake tweeted alongside a clip.
“She centered her entire platform around this election denialism. I didn’t want to give her a bigger stage to do that. But additionally, she has shown that she’s not interested in any kind of substantive conversation. She’s only interested in creating a spectacle,” Hobbs told Lemon when asked about her refusal to square off with Lake.
Lemon noted that Lake has other platforms to spread her ideas and pressed Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state, about whether a debate could give her the chance to counter Lake’s election claims.
“She can go in front of the people of Arizona every single day and talk about it, but you’re not confronting her on it. It seems like it would be an easy fix if you sit up on a debate stage and confront her about these issues,” he said.
“We’re six days out from the election, and our campaign strategy is our campaign strategy, so we’re moving forward. I’m continuing to make my case to voters in Arizona. Whether or not we debate in this race is not going to decide this election,” Hobbs replied. “So, you know, we made the decision. I didn’t want to be a part of a spectacle.”
The grilling took place on CNN This Morning, which debuted earlier this week. Co-host Poppy Harlow chimed in, noting that Hobbs didn’t just refuse to debate Lake. She also declined to debate her Democratic primary rival, Marco Lopez.
“I was miles of head of him in the race and won handily. It is a totally different situation here,” Hobbs replied, later adding that she has debated political foes in the past.
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Lake has long taunted her rival over her debate avoidance, deriding her as a “coward.” She currently has a 2.8 percentage-point edge over Hobbs in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate. Over the summer, Hobbs had the lead.
Lake has repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 contest and has stressed election integrity as a central tenet of her campaign. She has the backing of former President Donald Trump.
