Kari Lake linked to threats against Arizona migrant center: MSNBC columnist
Kari Lake has reportedly been fueling threats against an Arizona migrant center.
Lake, who claims to have won the 2020 gubernatorial election in the state, is currently running for Senate. But that hasn't stopped her from taking the time to amplify dangerous misinformation, according to an MSNBC columnist.
"An Arizona-based immigrant shelter for asylum-seekers claims it has faced threats stemming from conspiratorial claims pushed by right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe and promoted by GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake," Ja'han Jones wrote.
Jones noted that the International Rescue Committee, a "humanitarian organization that runs a migrant shelter in Phoenix known as the Welcome Center, told The Arizona Republic it has seen 'increased threats to our staff' after right-wingers O’Keefe, Lake and Elon Musk helped fuel conspiracy theories about its operation."
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The threats were reportedly traced back to an O'Keefe video. Jones says the video falsely alleged O'Keefe had "exposed" a "secret migrant center" in Phoenix.
"The reality is the center isn’t operating in secret at all. The Arizona Republic reported on the center in a feature last year, in which officials from the center, asylum-seekers who were staying there and even a rep for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., touted its success," the report states. "Musk and Lake responded to the video online by pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric and suggesting money spent there is misused taxpayer funds."
Specifically, Jones says, Lake included some bigoted claims in her response to the video.
"Lake responded to O’Keefe’s video with bigoted claims, popular among conservatives, that migrant arrivals constitute an 'invasion' of the U.S. 'Every time I fly out of the Phoenix Airport (which is often) there are busses unloading illegals who pour into the airport & fill planes headed to cities all across the country,' Lake posted on social media," Jones wrote. "'This is what an invasion looks like.' (Lake can't have seen many actual invasions if this is what she thinks one looks like.)"