Kari Lake Responds to Antisemitism Allegations

Arizona Republican Kari Lake has responded with fury to a series of allegations about her relations with people described as antisemites that were first made by online nonprofit Media Matters, and then included in an article published by Arizona Central, the digital arm of Phoenix newspaper The Arizona Republic, which since appears to have been removed from its website.

Lake shared a tweet from Arizona House Democrat Ruben Gallego, linking to the article and claiming she had "shown us exactly who she is," on X, formerly Twitter.

She hit back commenting: "Such garbage from the Arizona Repugnant and their leftist columnist whose source is the [billionaire investor George] Soros funded Media Matters.

"Meanwhile, they ignore the fact that Ruben Gallego has voted to support bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists. Gallego is antisemitic and he needs to be voted out of office." Lake did not provide any evidence that Gallego is antisemitic, or that he voted to support Hamas, and the allegations appear to be baseless. Newsweek has contacted both Lake and Gallego for comment by email.

Earlier in October, Lake announced she is running for an Arizona Senate seat, potentially setting up a three-way battle between independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema and a Democratic candidate.

Lake stood to be governor of Arizona in November 2022, but was defeated by Democrat Katie Hobbs. However, Lake is continuing to refuse to accept this result, insisting the race was rigged against her, despite the claims having been repeatedly rejected in court.

In its article, Media Matters noted that Lake had initially endorsed the Oklahoma state Senate run of Jarrin Jackson, who the outlet reported largely agreed with the racist conspiracy theory that Jews are "taking over the world," though she later rescinded her support.

Media Matters also noted that in July Lake appeared on the podcast of Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer who had previously claimed Jewish people are "unreliable and increasingly anti-American."

In November 2021 and February 2023, Media Matters reported that Lake had appeared on programs hosted by streamer Stew Peters, a white nationalist who it says described Judaism as a "death cult."

Lake endorsed the 2022 New Jersey congressional campaign of Ian Smith, a fitness instructor who went on to claim World War II was "engineered White genocide facilitated by international usurers," with Media Matters alleging she was continuing to follow him on X.

Some of these claims were repeated by EJ Montini in an article for Arizona Central, which since seems to have been taken down from its website. Newsweek has contacted Arizona Central by telephone, and Montini by email, asking whether the piece was withdrawn and if so for what reason.

It is unclear what led Lake to brand Arizona Democrat Gallego antisemitic and to claim he had "voted to support bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists."

On October 27 Gallego tweeted: "I unequivocally condemn Hezbollah and Hamas." He also criticized Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump for describing Hezbollah as "very smart," following rocket attacks on Israel.

Two days earlier Gallego had a meeting with Or Gat, an Israeli whose mother was killed by Hamas in its October 7 attack on southern Israel.

He commented: "Today, I met with Or Gat, whose family, along with so many other innocent civilians from Kibbutz Be'eri, were murdered and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

"Thank you for sharing your family's story, Or. I will keep doing all I can to see your family and all Israeli hostages freed."