Kari Lake left a Democratic congressman visibly frustrated after referencing a debunked claim about a House member having a gay lover during a heated exchange on the House floor.
The tense moment unfolded as Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) questioned Lake, who currently serves as President Donald Trump’s senior adviser at the Agency for Global Media. The back-and-forth grew increasingly personal, with Stanton pressing Lake on her refusal to concede two past state election defeats.
As he concluded his remarks, Stanton took a jab at Lake by sarcastically suggesting she run for Arizona governor again.
After asking if she could “yield back the last five minutes of my life,” Lake warned that a government-funded media organization like Voice of America, which she oversees, “could literally put out a lie about anybody here, and I know you’ve been the victim of that.”
“Can I respond to some of that because that was complete insanity? I wish I could yield back the last five minutes of my life, actually,” Lake begain. “And I want to apologize to the people of Arizona that we have somebody who’s representing the folks in our great parts of the valley that doesn’t care about the integrity of our elections.
“But you weren’t here — you came in late — and we were talking about USA JAM today, the agency for global media, and how they could put out absolute, abject lies and we can’t control — we have no say over what the editorial content is,” she continued.
“And I would hope that you would not be OK with that. They could literally put out a lie about anybody here. And I know you’ve been the victim of that. I know you’ve been the victim. I remember the stories about you where they said you had a gay lover. And those were going to…”
That led Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), to loudly object.
“Can I finish the story?” Lake asked.
“I hope you honor what you just gave as a caution to everyone and I move those words be…” Keating demanded as Lake continued to speak.
“To tell you that those kind of lies. And you said those were lies. Those kind of lies could be broadcast today on VOA,” Lake said. “And you couldn’t pick up the phone, Rep. Stanton, and call them and say, ‘Hey, you’re putting out lies about me.’ You would not be able to do that because they would sue you for breaking the firewall.
“So lies are being told on Voice of America. It’s inappropriate. You’ve been subjected to lies that you said were lies about you in the media before. And how would you like it if those lies were put on Voice of America right now? Beacuse they could do it and you couldn’t do a thing about it,” she said. “You couldn’t stop it. You couldn’t stop all those lies that you said were said about you if they went on Voice of America today. You’d have to sit and take it.”
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The federally funded Voice of America (VOA) instructed its reporters in March to stop using content from the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and Agence France-Presse, following the government’s decision to terminate contracts with the newswire services. Lake estimated the decision would save taxpayers approximately $53 million.
“We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,” Lake wrote on X. “With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves. And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”