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The prospect of Kari Lake as Trump’s VP should horrify us all

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David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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Kari Lake, the former television news anchor who was the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, is not done with politics. After losing her race to Katie Hobbs, Lake is still contesting the results and eyeing the state’s 2024 Senate contest. Now her name has surfaced in a report that former President Donald Trump is considering her for his running mate in the 2024 presidential election.

Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman argues that the idea of Kari Lake as the vice presidential candidate is extraordinarily scary and “should horrify us all.”

There is a stunning new report from Axios that Donald Trump is considering Kari Lake among four possible vice presidential running mates for 2024. The list is interesting because if you look at the list and think about personality and willingness to suck up to Donald Trump and do his dirty work, Kari Lake is really the name that stands out on the list.

The other names being considered are Nikki Haley — now remember, Nikki Haley is running against Trump right now. Trump doesn’t see her as a threat, and, in fact, she isn’t one; she’s polling absolutely terribly. The other idea is Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Donald Trump’s press secretary for a period of time; does not seem to me like a very likely candidate. And then thirdly, other than Kari Lake, is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. I think the difficulty with Kristi Noem is while she is an extremist, she’s not as cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs as Kari Lake. She seems to have like a tiny shred of self-respect where she wouldn’t be as willing to debase herself the way Kari Lake is willing to. And she actually seems more interested in governing in South Dakota rather than just being sort of like a henchwoman for Donald Trump.

So when I look at that list, understanding Trump’s personality and understanding the things he values, it seems to me that Kari Lake is sort of the best fit.

There is a stunning new report from Axios that Donald Trump is considering carry Lake among four possible by vice presidential running mates for 2024. The list is interesting because if you look at the list and think about personality and willingness to suck up to Donald Trump and do his dirty work, Carrie Lake is really the name that stands out on the list. The other names being considered are Nikki Haley, and remember Nikki Haley is running against Trump right now. Trump doesn’t see her as a threat. And in fact, she isn’t one she’s polling absolutely terribly. The other idea is Arizona, Arkansas Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Donald Trump’s press secretary for a period of time does not seem to me like a very likely candidate. And then thirdly, other than Carrie Lake is South Dakota Governor Kristi, noem. I think the difficulty with Kristi Noem is while she is an extremist, she’s not as cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs as Carrie Lake, she seems to have like a tiny shred of self respect, where she wouldn’t be as willing to debase herself the way Carrie Lake is willing to. And she actually seems more interested in governing in South Dakota, rather than just being sort of like a Hench woman for Donald Trump. So when I look at that list, understanding Trump’s personality and under understanding the things he values, it seems to me that Carrie Lake is sort of the best fit. Now there are real questions on the left. Not that it’s up to us to decide it’s up to the Republicans to decide who they want to be their nominee and vice presidential nominee. But there is a question on the left, as to whether we are better off running against the craziest possible Republicans, the idea being that they are less likely to win, or running against whoever is less likely to be insane or succeed at getting anything done if they win. Now, when it comes to Trump and DeSantis. There’s two views on this. One view is, Trump is bonkers. But he’s so incompetent, that if he were president, he wouldn’t get anything done. That would be a reason to say we’d rather run against Trump, because DeSantis is less incompetent, and thus would actually do some of the terrible things that he would want to do. The counterpoint to that would be no. Trump’s cartoonish nature, even if it doesn’t allow him to get things done, is so embarrassing to the United States globally, that another four years of Trump are what most desperately needs to be avoided. The idea of a Kerry Lake vice presidency, which puts her one heartbeat away from being President of the United States raises a similar question. On the one hand, one could argue, Carrie Lake is such a cartoonish clown, that her as Trump’s running mate, makes Trump less likely to win, because it’s so embarrassing. It’s like Sarah Palin, but even worse, so we should want Carrie Lake to be the VP, the counterpoint would be okay. If Trump were to win, and Carrie Lake is his vice president, then the risk of her becoming the president is an extraordinarily scary thing. And so we want to avoid even the possibility of that. So we should prefer someone other than Carrie Lake be Trump’s VP. The truth is, it’s merely a thought experiment. Because it’s not up to us. It’s up to Republicans to determine which of the candidates they want to be the nominee for president. And then it will be up to that nominee to decide who he or she wants to have as their vice presidential running mate. Now, one other aspect to this that is important to remember, at CPAC. Recently, they did a straw poll. And in the presidential straw poll, Trump easily won. And in the vice presidential straw poll, Carrie Lake easily won. This is a signal remember CPAC is basically Magga at this point, so people like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s views aren’t really represented in CPAC straw poll, but it’s a sign that at least the Magga people really, really like Kerry Lake. That might be a signal about Trump’s interest level at selecting Kerry Lake. The counterpoint however, is that the veck Ramaswamy, who’s running for president on the Republican side said I was offered the ability to rig the CPAC straw poll for a couple $100,000. If it is true that you could pay to rig the Presidential straw poll, it would follow that you might be able to pay to rig the vice presidential straw poll and that should make us at least question whether carry legs blow out when in that straw poll is legitimately representative of the interest of the Maga people to have her as the VP or maybe whether it is is not in any case if use zoom out and think in 2024 Carry Lake might be on a presidential vice presidential ticket that is utterly insane and it should horrify all of us

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