🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Kari Lake is questioning the mental fitness of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as Republicans bolster their allegiances to 2024 candidates ahead of this week's first debate.
Lake, the former Arizona gubernatorial candidate who still has not conceded her November 2022 defeat to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, has become one of Donald Trump's major political surrogates. She has repeatedly criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who according to polling poses the greatest risk to Trump being the GOP nominee but has seen his support drop.
Trump, who endorsed Lake last year, is not expected to partake in Wednesday's debate airing on Fox News. He is instead rumored to join former Fox host Tucker Carlson during a live interview in the same time slot.
"My question is, who does Mitch McConnell want?" Lake said to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his War Room podcast. Bannon replied that McConnell "wants somebody he can control."
"I don't think he can even control what comes out of his mouth," said Lake, who is reportedly weighing a Senate run in her state. "There's something going on right now with him. We saw it, I don't know what it is."
"There's something medically—when you freeze up like that and they have to, like, take your body and move it away from the podium," Lake continued. "Something's going on there, and he's gonna make all the decisions about who represents the people of Arizona? I don't know, that doesn't make sense to me, Steve."
Lake was likely referencing when the 81-year-old legislator froze mid-sentence for several seconds last month while speaking to the press prior to being helped away by fellow Republican senators and staffers. McConnell's health has been under more scrutiny following the incident, considering that he fell in March and suffered a concussion.
Bannon told Newsweek that Lake's comments likely stem from a report from The Hill citing GOP consultants and strategists that McConnell and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines of Montana fully plan to exercise their financial resources and political affiliations to make sure that Lake, as well as Montana Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale, will not be Senate nominees in their respective states.
"[Lake's] a fighter," Bannon said. "She took a shot across Mitch McConnell's bow today and it will continue...People overall understand that something is deeply wrong with the system and are looking for anti-establishment types to take it on. You're gonna see more of that."
Newsweek reached out to Lake via email for comment.
Bannon referenced the number of Americans who feel the United States is on the "wrong track," adding that McConnell, the longtime senator from Kentucky is only "a conduit for the money." Lake is playing "hardball" and isn't afraid to go on the offensive against either Democrats or conservative insiders," he added.
"The old Republican Party is dead, it's finished, it's destroyed...President Trump is the leader but the power of Trump goes to Lake, [Ohio Senator] J.D. Vance and others," Bannon said. "I think Kari—it's not just her media savvy. She presents a combination of the populist right plus the whole moms-parental rights movement."
Bannon added, "I think that is the future of this movement, of MAGA and these groups going after these schools."
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek investigative reporter based in Michigan. His focus includes U.S. and international politics and policies, immigration, ... Read more