Leading Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake came from the media, so she is well versed in dealing with reporters during interviews, often bringing her own camera operators to film her interviews too, in case the media only plays selective clips. 60 Minutes Australia recently interviewed her, and sparks flew during the interview and for an extended period afterward between Lake and journalist Liam Bartlett, as Lake repeatedly called him out for the type of questions he was asking.
Lake uploaded the entire interview and their exchange afterward to Rumble in a video entitled “Kari Lake vs Lunatic ‘Journalist’ at 60 Minutes Australia.” Almost all of Bartlett’s entire interview focused on discussing Donald Trump and the January 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol, which Lake did not attend.
Bartlett began with a statement, “Donald Trump thinks you should be governor of Arizona.” Lake responded, “That’s great, I think I should too. It’s the most powerful endorsement in all of politics.” She discussed how America was declining and selling out the U.S. to China before Trump became president, and went over Trump’s America First platform.
Next, Bartlett asked her, “What’s the personal appeal of Donald Trump for smart people like you?” Lake responded, “I just told you what the appeal is.” He pressed her anyway, and she responded, “He cared about America. He gave up so much to run for president. He didn’t have to do that, he had a comfortable life. But he saw that we were being led astray.” She listed off how he kept his promises.
Bartlett then went into Trump and the election. “So being a Trump supporter, as you are, do you have to believe in the ‘big lie’ that the election was stolen, is that a prerequisite?” Lake responded, “You’re thousands of miles away, you have really no idea what happened in our elections. … The ‘big lie’ is what the media has been peddling.”
Bartlett challenged, her, “Give me hard evidence, give me real evidence.” Lake looked at several sheets of paper and listed off multiple instances of alleged fraud that the independent Maricopa County ballot audit found.
Bartlett interjected, “But Kari, you’ve had four official audits.” Lake corrected him, “We’ve had one audit, a forensic audit, that is admissible in a court of law.” Bartlett contended that courts have looked at the evidence and found no fraud. He went on, “There’s been no evidence. No evidence has been presented in a single court of law in your country that has proven there’s election fraud.”
Lake countered, explaining that the evidence from the forensic audit has not been presented yet in court. “People broke laws.” As he continued badgering her, she exclaimed, “It’s really rich having someone from Australia coming here and tell us how our elections were run. … You’re coming here from Australia, where you don’t have any freedom, and trying to tell us our elections weren’t on the up and up.”
Bartlett started to say, “Your own officials…” and Lake interrupted him, “Our own officials are corrupt!” She said she watched the Maricopa County officials testify to Congress and “they lied.” She said they certified a corrupt election.
She implored him, “Liam, I’m asking you to do some research on what’s happening as a journalist. To sit there in Australia and tell the people of your country that we have a ‘big lie’ and that everyone’s making this up — this is corruption at the highest levels of our government to allow our votes to be perverted this way and stolen.”
She asked him, “Do you think it’s okay that more than 700,000 ballots had no chain of custody? We’ve got rules; they didn’t follow them. Our voter rolls are a mess. We’ve got people who moved 10 years ago and the ballot is still going to that home under their name.”
Bartlett finally asked her about her own race: “Do you think you can win?” Lake responded, saying she believed she would, since she is much more aware of the cheating and will stop it from happening during the election. “Not an election that goes on for 45 days; we’re going to call it Election Day, not election month and a half.”
Bartlett next asked her, “So even though you think the system at the moment stinks, corrupt, as you say, you’re still willing to be part of it, to try to be governor?” Lake responded with a laugh, “It’s so humorous, I’ve done so many interviews, and it’s almost as if everybody in the corrupt media gets their questions from the same people. It’s like you almost print out the same questions, because I’ve been asked that question by numerous people.”
Bartlett accused her of believing in a conspiracy. Lake told him that state legislators are the only ones who should be making election laws, not county recorders and unelected people, which is unconstitutional. She reiterated, “It’s frankly kind of appalling, Liam, frankly, that you are sitting there in Australia trying to tell us what we should be doing here in America. You guys don’t even have freedom down there.”
Then Bartlett pivoted to the January 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol. “How do you view the events of January 6?” Lake responded, “Well, that really doesn’t have anything to do with being governor of Arizona.” She acknowledged that while there have been some photos displayed all over the media, there are 14,000 hours of video surveillance footage unreleased, which House Speaker “Nancy Pelosi has that we the people own.” The footage would, presumably, enable people to figure out the situation. “It raises a lot of suspicion.”
Lake called Bartlett out again. “[I]t’s so typical for the media to try to, whenever they sit down with a Republican, especially a Trump Republican, try to talk about January 6. I wasn’t there. I had nothing to do with that.”
Bartlett responded, “Your man Donald brought it up.” Lake called him out on saying “your man Donald.” “That’s just so disrespectful. … It’s a flippant attitude. It’s obvious that you’ve come into this interview and you don’t like President Trump.”
When Bartlett kept returning to January 6, Lake responded and said the violence occurred on the streets during the “summer of love,” listing off other incidents of what the Democrats call “peaceful protesting.” As Bartlett kept bringing up January 6, Lake said, “I have no say in that, I’m running for governor, this isn’t something a governor does. You’re trying to twist this interview, and trying to make me look bad.” She denounced how the rioters are being held in prison without being tried yet, which is “un-American.”
“Perhaps in Australia because you’ve given your rights away, you melted down all of your guns, and you guys have no freedom, but you find that okay.” She contrasted Australia to America, which has a Constitution so people aren’t locked up without charges.
Bartlett asked her if Australia would be better off having more guns, and she said yes and feels sorry for Australians. “The only thing keeping us from being Australia or Canada is our Second Amendment. We will never, ever let that go.”
She cited Australia’s draconian COVID-19 lockdowns. “What we saw happening in Australia, where you have internment camps, and people are being forced, if they’ve encountered anybody with COVID, to be locked into a quarantine camp, is the most horrifying thing I think I’ve ever seen a government do. It’s frightening. If you can’t see that, I feel sorry for you.”
Lake told Bartlett there was only enough time left in the interview for one more question, and he asked about January 6 again. She responded, “You can keep asking the same questions and I’ve already given you my answers.” She thanked him for his time and said he’s asked that question three times.
She got up to leave and he continued talking. He tried to goad her into a 30-minute interview instead of just 15. “I’m sorry that you asked the same question three times and wasted your time,” she said. She asked him why he’s trying to tell her how to see the world since he’s a journalist.
He accused her of lying again about how long the interview was supposed to last, but she confirmed with her film crew and staff that they had it recorded on tape confirming that the interview was supposed to be 15 minutes.
When he continued talking anyway, she responded, “I don’t live in Australia. Are you actually a respectable journalist there or are you kind of a joke?” He brought up Trump again and said she’s talking fake news, so she responded saying the media “has hit rock bottom, and it keeps going lower. I don’t know if you have viewers who still watch, but here in America, people are tuning out the corporate media. … Days are numbered, buddy, if you want to keep pushing propaganda.”
She ended with a lecture for him, “I feel for the people of Australia. They’re being abused by their leaders, they have no rights, and the media is continuing to try and brainwash them. You were probably one of the guys pushing the fear of COVID … on your TV station. … People are never going to forgive you for that, and they are never going to forget. I suppose you’re the kind of guy that masks your children.” Bartlett dodged the question.
Lake then walked out of the room saying, “Thank you for giving me a good laugh, because you actually make some of the crazy reporters and people at CNN look almost respectable.” Passing his camera crew, she remarked, “That guy is a complete nut. Seriously. A complete insane person. Do people in Australia listen to him? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at the Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
