‘You’re the Frickin’ Governor of Arizona!’ Steve Bannon Takes Election Denialism to Bonkers New Level in Wild Interview With Kari Lake

Steve Bannon took election denialism to an unhinged level on his podcast this week, when he didn’t just indulge in the baseless claims of election fraud favored by former President Donald Trump, but went so far as to tell Kari Lake “you’re the frickin’ governor of Arizona.”

Lake is not the governor of Arizona. That is a fact.

Lake lost the November 2022 election to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake lost by 17,117 votes statewide.

Lake lost the lawsuit she and other Republican organizations and candidates filed on Election Day complaining about printer issues in Maricopa County and attempting to extend voting hours

Lake lost the lawsuit she filed after the election challenging the results, with the judge’s opinion stating that she had failed to provide “clear and convincing evidence” that misconduct occurred in the election, that such misconduct was intended to affect the election, and did in fact affect the election, issuing a ruling “confirming the election of Katie Hobbs as Arizona Governor-Elect.”

Lake lost the election, not because of election fraud, but because she could not convince Republican-leaning voters to support her. An analysis of the ballots showed that about 33,000 voters in Maricopa County alone voted for down-ballot Republicans but then split their ticket to vote for Democrat Hobbs for governor, and nearly 6,000 other voters who voted for down-ballot Republicans left the governor’s race blank or voted for a write-in candidate.

Hobbs was sworn into office on Jan. 2. She’s been going around every day since then doing governor things, like delivering the State of the State address on Jan. 9 to the Arizona Legislature, and her name and photo are all over the official website and social media accounts for the Governor of Arizona.

Apologies if any of this seems pedantic, but at least one person in the video clip above seemed to not know these facts.

Bannon interviewed Lake — along with MyPillow magnate and conspiracy peddler Mike Lindell — in the aftermath of the annual meeting of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in California, where Ronna McDaniel was re-elected as chairwoman on Friday.

McDaniel had faced criticism over Republican losses in the midterm elections and faced a challenge from Lindell and attorney Harmeet Dhillon but sailed to re-election with 111 of the 168 voting members of the RNC supporting her

Bannon, who appeared to be wearing three shirts with three pens on the placket of the outermost shirt and one more pen in his hand to wave around for emphasis, chatted with Lindell and Lake about the RNC meeting on his War Room podcast.

Both Lindell and Lake were willing to accept the RNC election results because the ballots were all counted by hand. “There’s no machines!” Lindell exclaimed happily.

Lake did say she was willing to accept that “Ronna won,” but added that what she hopes happens is that McDaniel “heard the message from the grassroots,” because “we can’t save this country unless we listen to the grassroots.”

Bannon accused the RNC of having “abandoned” Lake in her “historic fight,” which he predicted she was still “gonna win.”

“You are the legitimate governor of Arizona — of that, there is no doubt,” said Bannon, claiming that he had “read the briefings, read the court cases.” (It is not clear to which “court cases” Bannon is referring, but the Superior Court of Arizona for Maricopa County said very clearly that Lake is not the governor of anywhere.)

After some chatter about Lake hoping that the RNC will pay some of her legal bills for her failed election challenges and that McDaniel will make Lindell “head of the Election Crimes commission,” Bannon then turned the topic back to the Arizona governor’s race.

“If you read these briefings — Kari Lake, the governorship of Arizona was stolen from you and from the people of Arizona,” said Bannon. “The election was stolen. Where is the RNC today, at this minute, as you go into appellate court?”

Lake said that she had never met McDaniel in person and took issue with how McDaniel had blamed the midterm election losses on “terrible candidates,” specifically naming her and Blake Masters, who lost to incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

After some more claims from Lake that she “scares the consultant class of the Republican Party,” Bannon interjected to ask if McDaniel had met with Lake during the three days of the RNC meeting

Lake confirmed that she had not met with McDaniel and reiterated again that “Ronna won” before Bannon interrupted again.

“Hang on — you shouldn’t have to reach out to Ronna McDaniel. You’re the frickin’ governor of Arizona. You just won an incredibly tough race, because you stood for policies that MAGA stands for. She should be blowing your phone up every day…this is outrageous.”

Lake replied that she really wanted to meet with McDaniel because she believed that “if we do not get Donald Trump back in the White House , I don’t know how much longer we can last — I think our republic is in peril.”

The Definitely Not the Governor of Arizona pledged to do “everything in my power,” including “campaigning across the country” to get Trump back in the White House, because “I want my children to have a future.”

“Hang on, hang on, hang on,” Bannon cut her off again. “If we don’t get you in Arizona now, I’m not quite sure we have sovereignty.”

Lake went on to claim that she had “all the evidence, right here in front of us, it is ironclad, and we have the law” supporting her case and had “painted these judges into a corner,” so if they didn’t rule in her favor, “their reputations will be gone.