Trump-backed Kari Lake pushing for U.S. Senate

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Kari Lake, who is vying for Kyrsten Sinema’s open seat in the U.S. Senate this election, is a close ally of former President Donald Trump.

Both Trump and Lake call Democrats weak on border security.

Lake says migrants coming into the country need closer vetting.

“We need to get these dangerous people out,” she said. “Listen, I wanna have legal immigration. Our country largely was built upon it. But we cannot continue to have illegal immigration as it’s going right now.”

Lake wants a border wall without any gaps, and mass deportations. She argues the latter will also open up more housing across the country, and will in turn ease the housing affordability crisis.

“We’re gonna make sure that we work to get the people who have poured in during the 'Biden-vasion' back to their homeland, in order to save our homeland,” she said.

Senate Republicans killed a bipartisan border bill that would have tightened the asylum system, funded more CBP personnel and inspection technology at the border.

But Lake says she also would have shut down the failed bill, because it would have sent billions in aid to Ukraine.

“We don’t want a piece of border legislation that’s really about funding the military-industrial complex,” she said.

SEE RYAN'S FULL-LENGTH INTERVIEW WITH KARI LAKE:

Arizona’s largest police union, the Arizona Police Association, endorsed Trump for president, but then endorsed Lake’s opponent—Democrat Ruben Gallego—for Senate. Lake says she isn’t worried about that.

“Numerous other agencies have endorsed me,” she explained. “I get why [the APA] may have done that, I think it’s political.”

Gallego wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, saying federal oversight of Phoenix Police goes too far.

“I think that [the APA] realized in order to get Gallego to do something, they needed to [endorse him],” she said. “And unfortunately, he hasn’t given a damn about our police officers all this time.”

Lake says Democrat policies are to blame for higher prices.

“We’re gonna redo and rescind those and go back to that strong energy policy that President Trump had,” Lake said. “And that’s gonna help bring the price of everything down. And then we’re gonna, as President Trump says, ‘Drill, baby, drill.’”

Lake once called abortion ‘the ultimate sin’ on a radio show appearance, and called Arizona’s territorial era ban on abortion—with exceptions only to protect the life of the mother—a “great law.”

This year, she has shared a more nuanced message on the issue.

In a campaign ad on the topic, she says abortion “is such a personal and private issue.”

“I chose life, but I’m not every woman,” she says in the video. “I want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made.”

When asked about that in an interview, Lake said, “I don’t think my tone has changed, I really don’t.”

“I will never pass a federal ban on abortion. I won’t vote for that. And I will also not vote to have federal tax dollars, your tax dollars, funding abortion. So it’s gonna be up to the people of Arizona. They get to decide.”

Lake referenced Prop 139, on the ballot this November, known as the Right to Abortion Initiative. She has said she will respect the results of that Proposition.