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Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake was apparently urged to leave the stage at a Trump rally in Glendale on Friday.
As she spoke, footage taken from behind Lake reveals that messages on a screen in front of the podium urged her to “finish as soon as possible” before telling her to “leave the stage” and “Trump is waiting.”
His Democratic opponent, Ruben Gallego, wrote on X: “MAGA Republicans are finally catching up to the rest of Arizona.”
Trump’s rallies typically begin hours before the former president’s appearance, with speakers taking the stage before him.
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel shared one of the images, writing that the choice in the Arizona Senate race is “crystal clear. We need Ruben Gallego in the United States Senate.”
The daughter of former Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, conservative commentator Meghan McCain, also shared the footage mocking Lake.
The 2022 Senate and gubernatorial candidate told a rally in November of that year: “We don’t have any McCain Republicans here, do we? Get out!” Newsweek note.
In February, Lake said in a radio interview that she was joking about mocking John McCain’s 2022 gubernatorial run.
The Independent contacted the Lake campaign for comment.
Lake, a former news anchor who rejected the 2020 and 2022 election results, is running against Gallego for the seat of retiring independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat.
When she lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake claimed the election was stolen, and she also bolstered Trump’s claims that his election was stolen in 2020, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.
“I am extremely concerned about what my opponent Ruben Gallego is going to do to the state we love. I am running against the most radical man to ever run for office in the history of Arizona,” Lake said of his opponent Friday.
Earlier this month, Gallego shared a coalition of 40 Arizona Republicans and independents supporting him in a press release.
“I am running for the United States Senate to represent all Arizonans, regardless of where they live or their political party,” the Democratic candidate said. “We may not agree on everything, but we can find common ground on one critical goal: building a better Arizona.”
