Stephen King Lashes Out at Kari Lake

Horror author Stephen King isn't shy about calling out politicians he disagrees with on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Recently he's criticized Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green on the platform and now it's time for Kari Lake to be put under the microscope by the novelist.

Newsweek reached out to a representative for King for comment via email on Tuesday.

Lake, who ran in the 2022 Arizona governor's race with Trump's backing, lost by about 17,000 votes to Democratic rival Katie Hobbs. She then refused to concede, asking a court to throw out certified election results in Maricopa County and either declare her the winner or rerun the race.

Her legal challenges were eventually thrown out, as a court found there was no evidence of misconduct in Maricopa County. Lake is now running for an Arizona Senate seat and is expected to face Democrat Ruben Gallego and incumbent Kyrsten Sinema in 2024. Sinema has not confirmed she'll run for re-election.

On November 12, Lake shared a video to her X account where she explained why she is running for election. She wrote in the caption: "I've learned that I'm tougher than I thought I was. I've always thought I was tough because I grew up in a big family. When you're in a big family, you have to do a lot for yourself.

"Now, I know that Arizonans are with me every step of the way. I'm doing this for them."

In the clip, the U.S. Senate candidate added: "I've always had a really good work ethic and it's really hard to get me down. I'm a pretty positive person actually, the media doesn't always portray me that way but I've learnt that I've faced a lot of strife in the last year. It's not just me, Americans and Arizonans are but personally, what happened to us in that last election was very difficult and I've learned that I can keep up and plow right through every day."

She concluded: "I'm worried our country is on its last months, not even years, last months, I'm not even sure how much we can survive."

However, the critically acclaimed author disagreed with her reasoning. He re-shared the video and added: "You're doing it for yourself. Like Trump, your narcissism won't allow you to face the fact that you were rejected by the people."

Colton Duncan, Lake's senior advisor, told Newsweek: "The reality Joe Biden has created for America is more horrific than anything Mr. King's imagination could conjure up. The fact that he hates anyone trying to save America makes him a bigger monster than any of the characters in his books."

People on X also disagreed with King, with many taking to the replies to share their thoughts. This included the official campaign X account for Lake, which shared a donation link and added: "Thank you for your input, @StephenKing! You can help fuel our movement here."

Others took the opportunity to share their thoughts on Trump and conspiracy theories.

"Are you afraid of Trump? Is he your personal Ghost?" one person commented.

"Speaking of narcissists...look in a mirror!" said another.

A third added: "She wasn't rejected by the people, she was supplanted by far-left election cheaters in Maricopa County. All will come to light."

Other people agreed with the horror author, sharing the parts of Lake's interview that they disagreed with.

"How are they so good at lying Stephen?" one X user queried.

"I think @KariLake, like Trump, also suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. She thinks she's prettier than she is, smarter than she is, and more popular than she is. Maybe being on TV gave her the false impression that people think she's something special? Darwin at work," another wrote.

"Man, I had seven siblings and never had a moment to be alone. We all had jobs, but my brother didn't declare fraud when he lost the vote to be a mayor. And it was a 645 vote loss," a third person commented.

Update 11/15/23, 10:13 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Lake's senior advisor.