Kari Lake Condemned for Joking About Violent Attack on Paul Pelosi

At a campaign event yesterday, Kari Lake reaffirmed she’s absolutely unfit for public office by making a cruel joke about the violent attack against House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi.

“Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in D.C. — apparently, her house doesn’t have a lot of protection,” Lake joked, causing many of her supporters and the interviewer to laugh.

She doubled down on Fox News with Tucker Carlson shortly after, saying, “We can’t talk about all these issues because the media has told us they’re prohibited. You can’t talk about vaccines, you can’t talk about elections, you can’t talk about Paul Pelosi, and now you can’t talk about Nancy Pelosi.”

Here’s what people are saying about Lake’s comments:

• MSNBC: “Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake joined the list of right-wing figures who are using the violent attack on Paul Pelosi as a punchline—or are spreading conspiracy theories about the assault.”

• The New Republic: “Since the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband last week, Republicans have shown themselves to be even crueler and more conspiratorial than expected. As Paul Pelosi recovers from a skull fracture, Kari Lake, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and countless others have mocked the violent attack.”

• NBC News: “Lake isn’t the first high-profile Republican to have drawn attention for remarks about the attack. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned alongside Lake this month, sparked criticism for comments he made that touched on the incident just hours after the attack.”

• The Hill: “Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, made light Monday of the violent assault against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband on Friday.”

• The Guardian: “Republican and rightwing responses to the attack – many seeking to advance the GOP’s law-and-order midterm elections message – have drawn controversy. Democrats and media observers have warned of the danger of stoking politically inspired violence.”

• NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell: “Arizona candidate Kari Lake must think having your skull smashed by a hammer wielding (allegedly) murderous home invader is funny?”

• Bill Kristol: “Fascism is a ‘physiological’ phenomenon that refers to ‘the pleasure a person takes in allowing himself to break every moral law, divine or human.’ Kari Lake takes that pleasure. Her audience shares that pleasure.”

• Gun Violence Activist Fred Guttenberg: “As we take 10 min break from my daughters murder trial, I saw this news report on @KariLake & needed to reply.  Kari, you are the lowest form of sewer dwelling scum for your Pelosi comment.”

• The Independent’s Ahmed Baba: “The measure of how far someone rises in the Republican Party is their capacity for shameless depravity. Kari Lake is competing in a race to the very bottom, scraping the floor of the American psyche and appealing to the absolute worst of us. Paul Pelosi was almost killed. Enough.”

• Journalist Steven Beschloss: “Laughing about an 82-year-old man who has suffered a fractured skull from a homicidal attack and is in an ICU is not just sick. It makes clear Kari Lake is dangerously unfit.”

• Rex Chapman: “Kari Lake finds an assassination attempt funny. There is no bottom.”

“Kari Lake’s comments about the violent attack against Paul Pelosi are not only cruel but dangerous and disqualifying,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Political violence is not a joke and should never be tolerated, especially by someone who wants to run a state. Doug Ducey and the RGA should condemn Kari Lake and her violent rhetoric that puts leaders and law enforcement in danger and makes all of us less safe.”

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