Trump mocked Arizona disciple Kari Lake for election fraud fervor, book says

Kari Lake secured the Republican nomination for US Senate in Arizona on Tuesday, her convincing primary win fueled by Donald Trump’s endorsement. But according to a new book, Trump has regularly mocked Lake over how fervently she advances his election fraud lie.

“Lake’s commitment to talking about fraud in the 2020 election would make even Trump laugh at times,” Meridith McGraw of Politico writes in Trump in Exile, an account of the former president turned presidential nominee’s years since leaving power. The book is due out in the US next week; the Guardian obtained a copy.

According to McGraw, Trump told other Republicans seeking his endorsement they should be more like Lake.

“It doesn’t matter what you ask Kari Lake about,” McGraw quotes Trump as saying. “‘How’s your family?’ And she’s like, ‘The family’s fine but they’re never going to be great until we have free and fair elections.’”

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Citing Trump “friends and donors”, McGraw writes: “One said, ‘He was like, ‘You could ask her, how’s the weather?, and she’ll turn it into the election. ‘Oh, the weather in Phoenix is OK, but you can never have great weather unless the election is fair.’”

McGraw also quotes a 2022 conversation between Trump and Blake Masters – now a US House candidate but then running for US Senate – that was recorded by a documentary crew.

“I heard you did great on the debate,” Trump said, “but had bad election answers, you’ve got a lot of support and you have to stay with those people.

“If you want to get across the line, you’ve got to go stronger on that one thing, lot of complaints about it. Look at Kari. Kari is winning with very little money, and if they say, ‘How is your family?’ she says, ‘The election was rigged and stolen.’ You’ll lose if you go soft. You’ll lose that base.”